


Gendrya Drabbles

by Dragongoddess13



Category: A Song of Ice and Fire - George R. R. Martin, Game of Thrones (TV)
Genre: Drabbles, F/M, prompts, random tumblr drabbles
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2019-09-03
Updated: 2020-08-09
Packaged: 2020-10-06 14:42:24
Rating: Mature
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 20
Words: 24,485
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20508716
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/Dragongoddess13/pseuds/Dragongoddess13
Summary: Just a collection of random Gendrya drabbles that are too short to be their own story.





	1. Metal Working and Daydreaming

It would be highly inappropriate for Arya to stare at Gendry while he worked. Why, because he was her best friend and he didn’t even think of her in a similar way, so really she’s just setting herself up for all kinds of trouble. But God’s In heaven if that wasn’t a beautiful sight. Chest bare, skin glistening with sweat, muscles rippling with each swing of his hammer against his latest creation. 

Urgh! Why did she have to go and may friends with a guy who loved metalwork. If he were a painter he’d be wearing a smock. A chef? A coat. A businessman? A white button up that was far too small to contain the glory that were his biceps. 

No, bad Arya. Do not think about your best friend like that, that would be wrong and… and… naughty…so naughty…

“Fuck.” She grunted under her breath, turning her attention back to her computer. She had paper to finish (and really, who knew she’d have to write papers in Culinary School). Not her, that’s for fucking sure. 

Unfortunately, despite knowing she had work to do, she still found herself distracted, watching Gendry hammer away at his anvil, her mind wandering to other uses for said anvil. It was the perfect size for her petite frame, she could just go up to him and push him out of the way, set herself up there and present herself for ravishing. She’d overheard enough stories from his past hookups and ex-girlfriends to know he was an excellent lover, attentive, sweet and well endowed. He could just imagine how he would treat her. 

“Arry?” Gendry’s voice broke through her fantasy and she turned her eyes to look at him, now standing directly beside the table she’d claimed for herself. She felt heat flush her face, spreading along her chest. “Are you alright? You’ve been staring into space for twenty minutes.” 

“Oh, um… yes. I’m fine.” she squeaked as she spoke. 

“Are you sure? Your face is a little red too.” he reached forward, resting his hand against her forehead. “You’re a little warm, maybe you should get some air.” 

Sensing the chance to escape she jumped on it. “Yeah, no, yeah, that’s a good idea. I’ll do that.” she said, standing abruptly and walking away. 

-

-

-

Gendry watched her leave, a smirk tilting his lips. He would have to remember to thank Podrick for the baby oil suggestion. 


	2. Peeping Part I

“How do you do it, Arya?” Margaery asks, her eyes glued to the football field down below. 

“Do what?” Arya replied, looking up from her text book. 

“Spend so much time with Gendry without jumping his bones.” 

Arya sighed. “It’s not easy.” she replied. “I’ve been a horny mess since I hit puberty.” 

“Why don’t you just tell him you think he’s hot and you want to do it? I would bet you any money he’d be all over you if he knew you were interested.” 

“Yeah right.” Jeyne muttered under her breath, earning an elbow in the side from Sansa. 

“No one is talking to you.” Margaery replied, barely sparing the younger girl a glance. “Listen, I say, you go over that when he’s done and just plant one on him.”

“That’ll certainly get the message across.” Sansa added. She was now looking down at the field as well, following said man as he ran from one end of the field to the other, his sleeveless training jersey sticking to his skin. He stopped when the ball wasn’t in play, lifting the bottom of his shirt and wiping the sweat from his forehead, exposing the toned plane of his torso. “Mm, a boy like that should come with a warning label.”

“What? Broody when hungry?” Arya jokes, earning herself a round of laughed. 

“Joke all you want, but if I were the kind of girl who would steal a man away from a fellow sister, I’d be all over that.”

Arya looked confused. “He’s not dating anyone.” 

Margaery smirked. “No, but he will be once you tell him what’s been going through that very creative mind of yours.” 

“Can we please stop encouraging my little sister to jump a man four years her senior?” 

Margaery rolled her eyes. “It’s not like their aren’t adults, love.” she sighed when Sansa’s only response was to glare at her. “Fine, consider it dropped. But just do me a favor.” she said, turning to Arya again. “When you finally hit that, let me know if he’s proportional, will you?” 

“He is.” Arya replied without thinking, her face flushed red as they all turned to look at her. 

“Now how do you know that?” Sansa asked, suspicious. 

“He sleeps naked. And sometimes he forgets to close his blinds.” 

“Sooo, sleepover at your house tonight?”

“Arya, I can’t believe you spy on him.” Sansa reprimands, her face an adorable shade of pink. 

Arya rolled her eyes. “I do not spy on him. His window just faces mine and I catch a peak every so often.” 

“Do you ever walk around naked as well?” Margaery asked, a lascivious grin on her face. 

“No.” 

“Well why not?” 

“Because it’s wrong.” Sansa replies, at the same time Arya says;

“Because Joffery’s room is right next to his.” Sansa turns an outraged look on Arya who merely shrugs. “What? Don’t look at me like that, have you seen him?” she exclaimed, gesturing toward the field. It only took a moment to realize she had said that a bit too loud and a quick glance at the field showed the players, who had stopped to catch their breath, were looking up at them now. “Fuck.” she cursed as Margaery devolved into peels of laughter. 


	3. Peeping Part II

The whispers outside her bedroom door were anything but subtle and Arya debated whether or not she should get up and see what was going on, or ignore it. She didn’t get the chance to decide as a knock sounded, followed promptly by it opening. Margaery emerged, a sweet smile on her face. 

“Hello love. How are you doing on this fine evening?” she asked. Arya looks up at her from her bed, suspicion clear on her face. She looked around Margaery to find Sansa behind her in the doorway. 

“I’m fine.” she finally replies cautiously. 

“That’s good to hear. You know Sansi and I are having a sleepover tonight and we thought you'd like to join us.” Margaery tells her. “We ordered pizza and everything.” 

Arya looks between them. She likes Margaery, there’s no doubt about that. She’s a great friend to her sister, she’s sweet and kind and very empowering as a friend, but she’s also very sneaky. “Gendry’s out with friends tonight.” she says, watching the smile drop of Margaery’s face. 

“Damn.” she cursed. “So close.” she plopped down on Arya’s bed, laying out at the foot of it. Sansa and Arya share a look as the older woman steps in, closing the door behind her. “Any idea when he’ll be back?”

She merely shook her head. Margaery grumbled under her breath sitting up. “Damn.” she curses again. 

“You’re welcome to hang out and see if he shows up. He went to see The Brotherhood play at the Pub, so he shouldn’t be long. You know how bad those guys are.” 

Sansa grimaced. “I don’t know why he keeps going to listen to them. He always complains about how bad they are.” 

“Podrick and Ned always drag him along. They buy his drinks so, he can’t really say no.” 

“Hell, I’ll put up with that garbage for free drinks.” Margaery tells her. Sansa laughs. 

“I doubt you’d have to sit through a set to get free drinks from those two.” 

“Honestly, all you have to do is bat your eyelashes and they’ll buy you all the drinks you want.” 

“Mmm.” Margaery hummed, staring up at the ceiling. “Maybe we should go to the pub.” 

“Then you’ll miss Gendry coming home.” 

“Good point.” she sighed. “So what should we do?”

“What do you mean what should we do? This sleepover was your idea.” Sansa asks, slightly annoyed. 

“I’m sorry, I didn’t think about this beyond catching a glimpse of some Baratheon Booty.” 

“Baratheon Booty?” Arya asks around peels of laughter. Sansa buries her face in her hands, seriously reconsidering her choice in friends. 

“Don’t tell me you’re not thinking the same, you’ve seen it more than any of us!” 

She’s right of course, but as off late, Arya’s been avoiding Gendry, too afraid he’ll ask her what she was talking about during practice a few days before. 

For the next hour or two, the three women laugh until they cry, gorge themselves on pizza and junk food and wax poetic about the hottest men in their circle of friends. Margaery is just about to share her opinion on Robb’s abs when Sansa notices the light on in the house next door. 

“Gendry’s back.” She says, drawing Margaery’s attention to the window. Carefully she crawls out of bed and across the floor, kneeling just below the window and peeked up over the ledge. 

“Oh, hello buns of steel.” She says. 

“Is he really naked?” Sana’a questions, crawling over to join her. Arya joins then a moment later. 

“Oh yes, darling. And from the looks of it he’s also a bit tipsy.” 

“Damn.” Sansa says as she peeks over herself. Her face flushed a bright red. 

Margaery doesn’t dare take her eyes off him as she speaks. “Arya, darling, on behalf of all womankind I implore you, climb that man like a tree.”

“Ugh, I wish.” She replied. 

Before anyone can reply, Gendry turns around, his gaze pointed out the window. 

“Oh fuck.” Sansa exclaims as they all dive for cover. “Do you think he saw us?” 

“I don’t know, but if he did we can tell him he was imagining it and blame it on the alcohol.” Arya suggested. 

“Ooo, you’ve thought about this.” Margaery teases. 

“Only just enough.” she replied. “Someone should check and see if he’s still there.” 

Margaery didn’t reply as she angled her body enough to peek over the window sill without exposing herself. “He’s gone, the lights are off.” 

They all relaxed, completely unprepared for Arya’s phone going off, startling them all. 

“Fuck.” she cursed, diving for it on the end table. “It’s Gendry.” she said, her voice frantic. Margaery and Sansa shared a look before scrambling to their feet and bolting out the door. “Traitors!” she yelled after them. When she finally answered, she did her best to sound sleepy. “Hello?” 

“Were you talking about me?” Gendry stumbled over the words, a little too inebriated to be using the phone. 

“What?”

“Were you talking about me, the other day, when you were watching practice and you shouted all that stuff about how good looking someone was. Were you talking about me?” Arya hesitated and Gendry took the opportunity to stumble into a drunken ramble. “It’s just… Pods said you were and Ned agreed and they keep insisting that you were talking about me. So I just want to know for sure so I can tell them once and for all that you would never want something like that with me.” 

“How much have you had to drink?” it’s the only thing she can get out of her mouth and she flinches at the non answer. 

“Just enough not to be embarrassed by this conversation.” 

They fell silent as she tried to figure out what to say. Eventually she settled on the truth. “I was.” 

Gendry took in an audible breath. “Really?” Gods help her, he sounded so happy.

“Yes.” she tried not to wince, she had no reason to, but she really couldn’t think of anything else to say. 

“Breakfast tomorrow?” he asked. 

She smiled to herself. “If you can get your hungover ass out of bed, then you’re on.” 


	4. Baby

Over the years, Arya had had the pleasure of seeing Gendry in various states of undress. Playing sports with his shirt off, shirtless at the beach, and a very memorable encounter where he’d lost a bet with Robb and Jon and had to streak naked across the lawn, only for her bothers to lock him out of the house. They’d instantly regretted  _ that  _ when she’d openly oggled him as she walked up the driveway. Little did any of them know that was the first in a long series of moments that would lead them to this moment. 

Arya watched from the doorway, leaning against the frame, her eyes tracking the slowly swaying body of her husband. His head was bowed over the tiny bundle in his arms as he whispered sweetly to his little girl. When she told him that she was pregnant, he had been scared, but there was an overwhelming joy that enveloped him and he spent the next nine months eagerly waiting for her arrival. Now there was rarely a moment he spent away from her. Cradling her against his chest and speaking softly to her, reminding her how much he loved her. 

Arya pulled her cellphone out of her pocket, snapping a picture of them. At this point her entire camera roll was of them, but it was worth it. As she slides her phone back in her pocket, Gendry looks up at her and smiles. 

“Hey.” he whispers. Arya smiles back, stepping up to him, and running her hand, softly, over the fuzzy black hair on her daughter’s head. 

“Morning.” she replied, shifting her attention to him and reaching up to kiss him. 

“Did you sleep alright?” he asked. 

She nodded. “How about breakfast?” 

“Mm, you feed her and I’ll feed us?” he continues, handing the baby over. 

“Perfect teamwork.” Arya replied, offering a high five as he agrees, he leans over and kisses her on the head as he passes. 


	5. Dog Daze

It started with a simple question from husband to wife. 

“What would you do if I came home with six puppies?” 

Catelyn stares unimpressed, her eyes shifting from her husbands face to the large cardboard box in his arms. He smiles when she meets his eye again, but her expression doesn’t change. The children will be home from school soon, the last day before summer vacation, and for the last few weeks she and Ned have been trying to figure out how to keep them all occupied and out of each other’s hair. She supposes each of them getting a puppy would be a decent distraction. 

Catelyn takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Where did you even get six puppies?” 

“One of my employees’ daughter breeds and trains dogs. This litter had a buyer, but they fell through.” 

Catelyn stares at him again, and they find themselves in a bit of a limbo, Ned waiting for confirmation that he wouldn’t be sleeping on the sofa in his office tonight and Catelyn trying to decide if she should banish him to the sofa in the basement. 

“Fine.” she finally relents and gods help her she loved her husband’s smile. Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad. 

Her children were thrilled when they came home. In the years that followed they cared for and loved their dogs with everything they had. Above all though, Arya was most attached to her dog, Nymeria. So, a few years later, when she was unpacking in her new house in King’s Landing and Nymeria got out as she was unloading boxes, she was beside herself. 

Arya spent went door to door for hours, asking if anyone had seen Nymeria, she showed them pictures, but no one had seen her. She took it to heart that they all promised to keep an eye out for her though. As she neared her own home again, she stopped at her neighbor's house, knocking on the door. A few minutes passed before it opened and for a moment, Arya forgot why she was there. 

The man that stood before her, towered over her, hell she was pretty sure he would tower over her dad. He had shaggy black hair and intense blue eyes. Most importantly, however, he was shirtless, showing off his well defined torso and arms. 

“Can I help you?” he asks, pulling her from her thoughts, the smirk on his face tells her know he knows exactly what she’s thinking. 

Arya cleared her throat. “I just moved in next door and while I was unpacking my dog got out. You wouldn’t happen to have seen her, would you?” 

“Did you move here from the north?” he asks, surprising her.

“Yes, how did you know?” 

“Just a hunch. She’s out back.” he tells her, stepping aside so she can step through the door. He leads her through to the back of the house, opening a sliding door on to a patio. Just off the patio is an inground swimming pool, and sitting on the steps, her head poking up over the edge is Nymeria. 

Arya let out a sigh of relief. “I’m so sorry about this.” 

The man shrugged. “Don’t worry about. It’s only April now, but give it a month or two and it’ll be twice as hot as this. Might want to get her her own pool.” 

“I will. Thank you again.” Arya tells him, as she latches the leash onto Nymeria’s collar. “I’m Arya by the way.” 

“Gendry.” 

Two days later, Arya comes home from work and as she opens the door, Nymeria bolts again. As she rounded the corner of the house she hears a deep yelp followed by a splash. The side gate into Gendry’s back yard is open and she runs back, only to find what she already suspected. Gendry’s standing in the pool, dripping with water, a large pool float turned upside down and floating away from him and there, dog paddling happily is Nymeria, a rather pleased look on her face. 

“I guess she doesn’t like her pool.” Gendry chuckles as he notices her. She laughs, using every ounce of her will power not to ogle his bare chest. 

“I guess not.” She kneels down at the edge and Nymeria happily paddles over. “I suppose she’s not getting used to the heat either.” she continues. “I’ll probably have to send her back to Winterfell. I had to live without her for years while I was in school, I was really looking forward to having her around again.” she says sadly, scratching behind her ears. “Anyway, come on girl, you’ve had your fun, time to go.” 

Obediently she climbed out of the pool and Arya stood. “I’m sorry again. I’ll try to be more careful.” 

“It’s alright, no harm done.” he smiles at her and she feels her heart flutter at the lopsided grin. She smiles back, certain it’s not as bright as it could be, a feeling of sadness still permeating the air around her. 

xXx

It’s been two weeks since Nymeria ran away again and Arya is clinging to the hope that she’s gotten it out of her system. It seems she was merely waiting for Arya to lower her guard, however. After a truly exhausting day at the animal clinic, Arya opens the door only for Nymeria to bolt out again. Having an idea where she’s headed she simply trudges along, rounding the side of the house and stopping short when she sees the gate is closed. Gendry had confided in her that he usually kept the gate open when he was home, in case of some sort of emergency since he lived alone, but now it was closed tight, despite his car in the driveway and the garage door being open. Nymeria is nowhere in sight. 

“Nymeria!” Arya yells. She receives no bark in reply and calls for her again and once more after that. As she stops to listen she hears a curse on the other side of Gendry’s fence before the gate is open. 

“Shit, I completely forgot about this damn thing.” he says when he spots her. He’s just about to offer to help her search when they hear a splash from the back yard and share a bewildered look. “How…?” he turns, leading the way back into the yard. Sure enough, there’s Nymeria, lying on the concrete step of the pool, her head resting on the edge. “There is no other way into the yard, how the hell did she do that?” 

Arya sighs. “She jumped.” she says it like it should be obvious, but Gendry is skeptical. 

“That’s a nine foot fence. I know, I built it myself, how the hell did she jump it.” 

“My little brother Rickon is an animal trainer, he got his start training the family dogs to do tricks, most notably, vaulting.” she shakes her head. “I completely forgot about that.” she mutters. 

Gendry stands there for a moment, watching the husky bath in his pool. “Alright look.” he says, amusement filtering in. “I know you don’t know me that well, but I work from home and I would be happy to watch her while you’re at work during the week.”

“I couldn’t ask you to do that.” she protested. 

“You didn’t ask, I offered and quite frankly, it’ll be good for her, especially with the summer heat settling in. It’s been mild so far, but it won’t be for much longer.” Arya looks hesitant, but she knows he’s right. Nymeria is suited toward the cold weather and she’s determined not to send her home. 

“Alright, but at least let me do something for you in return.” she insists. “Anything at all.” 

Gendry hesitates. “I can’t really think of anything at the moment, but maybe I could take a raincheck?” 

She happily agrees. 

xXx

“Why are you smiling at your phone?” Loras asks, sliding his seat away from his desk to Arya’s a few feet away. It’s been a slow day, which is always good when your a Veterinarian. Too much excitement means injured animals, and no one wants that. “Did you finally make a move on your hot neighbor?” 

Arya looks up from her phone. “No,” she whines. “Not yet.” 

“Sweetheart, you have got to get on that.” 

“Ew, can you please stop talking about my cousin like that where I can hear you?” Shireen complains, turning from her own desk. Loras just laughs. A few days after Gendry had offered to watch Nymeria for her, she’d told Loras and Shireen about it. It didn’t take long for Shireen to realize the cousin who had been joking about the dog next door was in fact the very same Gendry Arya had been drooling over since meeting him. “Seriously though, what are you smiling at?” 

“Gendry keeps sending me silly pictures of Nymie.” she tells them, turning her phone so they could see. The picture was a snap, Nymeria sitting on a pool float, a pair of Gendry’s sunglasses on her face. She looked like she was smiling as she panted, and the caption read “Dog Daze” in bold beachy print. 

“My cousin is such a nerd.” Shireen laughed. “Glad to see he’s found a legitimate reason to put off finishing his new book, though.” 

Loras scrolled to the next picture. “Oh!” he exclaimed, grinning. This one pictured Gendry himself, laying on the same pool float as the other, this time, with Nymeria laying on top of him. The sun glasses she’d been wearing in the previous picture was on his face this time and he was grinning as he snapped the selfie. “He’s sending you topless pictures of himself?”

“He’s in the pool.” Arya defended. Loras looked unconvinced. 

“Mmhmm, I’m sure that’s the only reason.” 

Arya rolled her eyes, looking to Shireen for help. “Yeah, no, he’s shit at flirting, he’s definitely trying to tell you something. I have no idea how an award winning author can be so bad at using his words.” 

Loras looked smug. “Has he cashed in that favor you promised him yet?” she shook her head. “You should offer to cook him dinner, you’re an amazing cook.” 

“Oh yeah, that’s perfect.” Shireen agrees. “Gendry loves food. If you cook for him, he’ll follow you around like a dog.”

“No wonder her gets along with Nymeria so much.” Loras jokes. “That’s perfect though. If it goes well you can call it a date, if it doesn’t, well, you were just repaying a favor.” 

“Go on, text him now, asking if he wants to have dinner tonight, you’ll cook.” Shireen pushes. 

Arya looks between them before sighing. “Fine.” she relents, sending off the message quickly before she can change her mind. “But I doubt…” her phone chimes seconds later, cutting her off. 

Loras looks smug as Shireen laughs. “Thirsty much, cuz.” 

“Oh yeah, he’s not interested  _ at all _ .” 

Arya blushes, reading the text again. 

_ Sounds great! Can’t wait! See you tonight! _


	6. Porno Blacksmith

“What are you supposed to be?” Hot Pie asked, taking a bite of his pizza. Gendry looked up from loading his jack-o-lantern shaped plate with chips and dip, grinning. 

“A Blacksmith.” he replied, rather proud of himself. 

“Did blacksmiths work shirtless?” 

“Sometimes I’m sure.” 

“Mmhmm,” Hot Pie sounded skeptical. “Are you just saying that because you need an excuse to show off your abs to Arry?” 

Gendry huffed unconvincingly. “What? Why would I want to show off my abs to Arya? 

“If you have to ask you’re as stupid as she says you are.” 

“What did he do now?” Arya asked, drawing their attention as she came to stand beside them at the snack table. She didn’t look up at either of them as she perused the numerous Halloween themed snacks. She was dressed in a costume of her own, a short fuzzy grey dress, with fur around the bottom trim cuffs and collar. Attached to the dress was a hood, with fur around the trim and wolf ears to match the tail on the back. Her long brown hair, trailed out of the hood, framing her face and she’d painted the end of her nose black and whiskers on her cheeks. 

Gendry forced himself not to stare at the short cut of her skirt. “I’m not stupid.” he defended, trying to take his mind off her costume. 

Arya hummed, turning to face them as she says; “That’s debatable.” she hesitated when she finally caught sight of him. “What are you supposed to be?” 

“A blacksmith.” he replied, unconsciously opening his arms so she could see it better. He was kind of proud of his costume. It hadn’t been easy to find the pieces. He had to go to several specialty shops to find the leather pants and boots, and it took some browsing to find an online shop that made the bracers and belt for him. 

“From what, a porno?” she asked unimpressed. Gendry deflated. 

“No, I’m sure there were a few who worked shirtless at some point.” 

“Doubtful. They would have at least worn an apron.” she told him, turning to grab a soda off of the table. “The bracers are nice though.” she continued, as she turned to walk away, meeting her sister and their friends across the room.

Gendry scowled as Hot Pie smirked. 

-

-

-

“Gendry’s looking good tonight.” Sansa smirked as Arya approached, her face beet red, taking deep breaths as she walked. 

“Shut up.” she snapped half heartedly. 

Sansa laughed.


	7. Through the Years

She still remembers the first time she saw him shirtless. He was swinging a sword around, practicing. He was shit at it, of course, but it wasn’t really what she was paying attention to. In fact, the only reason she corrected him, was to break her concentration on his muscled torso. It didn’t seem right for a boy of five and ten to be so well defined, but she supposed it made sense with his vocation. 

The second time she saw him shirtless, they were on the road again. Hot Pie had gone off for some privacy, leaving Gendry and Arya alone at their little camp. They had made camp near a stream and tired of being filthy, Gendry stripped off his shirt, and breeches, wading into the water in his small clothes and began scrubbing. She’d starred fixated on the water drops trailing through the valleys between his abs, until Hot Pie returned, startling her from her fantasies. 

The third time she saw him shirtless, was only a few days later. The Brotherhood had found them and brought them along to an inn not far off. Hot Pie had opted to sleep in the little room behind the kitchens, leaving Gendry and Arya to share a room upstairs. Normally he slept in the nude, but sharing a bed with her, he opted to only remove his shirt. That particular day had been trying, hearing all the news the Brotherhood had to share on her family, and she found herself, emotionally wrought as she lay there in the dark. Seeming to sense her pain, Gendry rolled over, wrapping his arms around her and pulling her against his bare chest. His proximity helped, diverting her thoughts to the bare skin she could feel under her cheek.

Over the weeks they continued to travel together, she saw him without a shirt on several occasions. She didn’t really understand what it was she was feeling when she saw him like that, but it clouded her thoughts. When she ran away from the brotherhood, leaving Gendry behind, she put him out of her mind, making her way to Braavos where she trained in The House of Black and White. In the dark, as she lies alone in her bunk, he thinks about him sometimes. As the years pass she finally understands why she felt that way she looked at Gendry, and when she finally leaves Braavos, she makes her way back to Westeros and the inn Nymeria had spotted him in on several occasions. 

The first time she sees him shirtless in several years, he’s in the forge, washing his arms in a barrel of water. He’s oblivious to her watching him, keeping to the shadows behind the pen wall that separates his bunk from the rest of the forge. She embraces what she has always felt, but never really understood. 

Gendry finishes, grabbing a towel and drying off, taking a few steps forward toward his small bunk near the back of the forge. As he turns the corner he stops short, finally seeing her. His changed, now a man grown, he’s grown facial hair around his mouth and chin, well groomed for his daily activities. His sharp blue eyes stare at her, disbelieving. 

“Arya?” he breaths and she forgot how much she liked the way her real name sounded on his tongue. He takes a step forward and hesitates. He seems to be waiting for something and when it doesn’t happen, he continues forward, his arms like steel bands surrounding her and pulling her into him. She sighs, relaxing into him, her eyes closing as comfort washes over her in a way it hasn’t in a long time. She knows what she feels, she knows what it means to feel this way when she looks at him, but right now, all she knows is the feeling of coming home.


	8. Bossy

“Take off your shirt.” she demands, the slightest tilt of her lips giving away her amusement at seeing him like this. Prone, panting, lips swollen from her demanding kisses. A moment of defiance bubbles up, his trademark stubbornness screaming at him to argue with her. He stamps it down as she arches an eyebrow at him, sitting up enough to pull it off. He takes a moment to feel pride as he catches her staring at the plains of his abs. 

“Don’t look so pleased, Stag.” she tells him, drawing his attention back to the stern look on her face. 

“Yes wolf.” he replies, his last act of defiance for his queen. 

Arya Stark, reigning head of the Stark Family crime syndicate, stood over him, her form radiating the power that came from years of learning at her father’s side. As the head of the family she’d brought The Starks to the top of the Underground, spreading their reach across Westeros. The Northmen, the name of the grunts and footmen of the Stark empire, heralded her as the most successful leader since her great grandfather ran the organization. 

Gendry was no one, cast out from his own family’s organization by his half brother after their father died. Gendry wasn’t entirely sure Joffery didn’t have something to do with that, but as he fled King’s Landing, he merely counted himself lucky he wasn’t joining his father in the afterlife. He’d found his way North, lying low in Wintertown where he eventually met Arya. She wasn’t the head of the family yet then, only a young woman enjoying her life. She’d laid eyes on him in that bar, tracing the outline of his muscles along his arms and shoulders through his t-shirt, and he’d not known peace since. For the life of him he couldn’t find it in him to regret anything. Arya lived up to her nickname well; She-Wolf of the North, and Gendry was lucky enough to be considered a part of her pack.

“Get up.” she orders, stepping back from the sofa she’d pushed him down on when he entered the large, top floor office. She had been waiting for him, looking light and carefree as she leaned back against the large desk, his father’s desk. 

Gendry gets to his feet, letting her guide him back to the large ornate wooden desk. He stands with his back to it, looking down at her as she steps up against him. “It’s yours now.” she tells him, running her palms up his chest. He looks confused. 

“What?” 

“The Baratheon Family. You’re the last one, it’s your birthright.” she gestures to the desk behind him, but he doesn’t turn to look. Arya had taken Gendry in as a friend, but it wasn’t long before their attraction to each other took center stage and before long she became everything to him. Arya had taken control of The Stark Family when half of her father died. It was made to look like an accident but it was obvious with a bit of digging that Joffery had staged the entire thing to weaken the North. Arya made it her mission to destroy him and in the process of working against him, she discovered that Joffery and his siblings were not Robery Baratheon’s children, in fact, Joffery, knowing this had sought out all of Robert’s illegitimate children, cutting them down one by one until only Gendry remained, his own adversary for the head of the Baratheon empire. If any of the people within the organization ever found out that Joffrey wasn’t Robert’s biological child, they would have ousted him in a heartbeat, so it took very little to circulate the information, unseating the cowardly man child and taking over the organization in the confusion. 

Gendry had gone along under the impression that she would assimilate the Baratheon’s into the Stark empire, but this… he didn’t expect this. 

Without warning she pushes him back, Gendry barely steadying himself as he lands against the edge. He doesn’t get much reprieve as she shoves him again, forcing him to lie back on the expansive wooden surface. 

“Arya.” he breaths as she crawls up onto the desk, straddling his hips. Instinctively he reaches down, resting his hands on her hips as she grinds against him. “I thought…” he pauses, letting out a groan as she changes the direction of her movements. “I thought we were going to…” he gasps. “We’re supposed to…” she reached between them, slipping her hand under the waistband of his pants. “...together.” he groans, her fist circling his cock, squeezing. 

“Together, what?” she asks, leaning over and whispering in his ear. She nips at the lobe before trailing down the side of his neck. He knows what she’s doing, driving him mad like she loves to do. 

“Lead.” he forces out, gasping as she finally lets him go. She chuckles, sitting back up and sliding off of him. As she stands, hands moving to the buckle of his pants, Gendry sits up, placing his hands over hers to stop her. “Are we? Are still going to lead together?” he asks, face earnest despite the need pulsing through his veins. 

“Of course.” she smiles up at him, a rare sight in the last few years as she worked to avenge her father. “I just wanted to be sure you still wanted that. You have every right to run your father’s organization on your own.” 

Gendry smiles at her, leaning down so their eye to eye. He can see the uncertainty in her eyes, the concern that he would want to leave her now that he had an empire of his own. Like he wouldn’t want to share this with her, the way she shared it with him. 

“Now why would I want to do that?” he asks, leaning in to steal a kiss. She smiles against his lips, her hands shaking his off and going back to work. As she works to open the buckle of his pants, he tugs her shirt off. When she’s finally released him, he slides off the desk, pushing his pants down and shucking them off with his shoes and socks. “You’re a little overdressed, love.” he tells her, and she rids herself of her own pants in response. When she’s rid of them, Gendry steps back, climbing back up on the desk and pulling her back into his lap. “Now, let’s get back to christening our desk.” 

Arya grins, pushing him back to lie down. It’s nothing to rid herself of her bra, her underwear following suit. Gendry struggles under her, disposing of his as well. Before he knows it she’s sinking down onto him, her mouth falling open as se stretches around him. 

“Fuck.” he groans, his hands finding her waist again, holding on as she rides him, slowly at first, speeding her pace as she gets closer. He feels her contract around him, her whole body tensing up over him and Gendry sits up, wrapping his arms around her and crushing her against him. He drives his hips up into her, chasing his own release. She holds onto him as he moves at a blistering pace, clinging to him like a lifeline. She whimpers, biting into his neck as he pulls her tighter against him as he reaches his peak. “Fuck!” he curses, burying his face in her shoulder. 

Slowly, Gendry lays back, taking her with him. “We are definitely taking this desk back to Winterfell.” 


	9. You Are M'Lady

Gendry was like a mountain, tall and massive, taking up so much space. His shoulders and arms flex as he lifts crates and barrels in and out of the forge. They haven't spoken since the night before the battle, but she’s found herself watching him in secret whenever she isn’t stuck in council meetings or training new recruits. She’s spent so much time watching him that even Sansa has noticed, reminding her that Gendry is in fact the bastard of a royal, who Jon considers a close friend, and would legitimize him if she’s truly interested in him and he her.

Arya pushes it aside. She has long since come to terms with her feelings for him and the fact that she would be more than happy to spend the rest of her days with him, but Gendry hates the nobility, her family the exception of course, and the idea of him accepting his father’s name is laughable. All he wants is the simple life and becoming a lord will take that possibility from him. Additionally, on top of what she’s already given him, she can’t for the life of her make herself believe that he feels the same for her. She knows, logically, that he cares, he wouldn’t have accepted her advances the night before the battle if he didn’t feel something for her. Whether that something is the same as she feels for him, or the affection he holds for a friend who needed comfort, she doesn’t know.

Today is his name day, or at least the day she made him choose while they were on the King’s Road together, and Jon has planned a feast for his fellow bastard. Gendry isn’t thrilled, she can tell, being one of the only people around who can decipher his broody expressions, but he doesn’t argue, knowing he should count himself lucky to be treated to such a thing at his simple station, knight and war hero or not. 

Arya does not, repeat not, wear her best dress; a deep blue and with silver wolf embroidery, crafted by Sansa. She does not wear the corset that accentuates her naturally perky breasts. She does not let Sansa do her hair, or paint her face with make up the older woman is so fond of. And she most certainly does not feel nervous as she enters the hall, eyes discreetly scanning for the guest of honor. Most importantly, she does not feel disappointment or jealousy when she catches sight of him conversing with one of the young serving girls. 

She spends most of the evening trying to take her mind off the fact that he hasn’t looked in her direction all evening. She makes conversation with the lords and ladies, laughing with Brienne and Tyrion and Jaime. It’s late in the evening when she finally excuses herself, unable to remain in the same room with the oblivious blacksmith. 

She’s halfway to her chambers when she hears heavy footfalls behind her and turns to find Gendry jogging toward her. “Leaving already?” he asks, that little half smile on his lips. She wills her heart to calm. 

“Yes, it’s getting late and I have a water dancing lesson to give in the morning.” she tells him, her voice soft. He watches her a moment, something she doesn’t want to hope for passing through his eyes. Before she can think twice about it, she reaches into the small pouch at her belt, pulling out a small paper box and holding it out to him. “Happy nameday, Gendry.” she says, before turning on her heels and walking away. She doesn’t want to wait for him to open it, doesn’t want to see the look on his face when he finds the little silver wolf charm on a leather band, doesn’t want to think about the implication of her giving him her family’s symbol, or what he may think of that. He will always be her family, whether he likes it or not, but she doesn’t think she can handle the rejection if he still doesn’t want to be. 

Her sleep is restless that night and in the morning she goes about her day intentionally avoiding every place she knows she would normally see Gendry. Perhaps it’s childish, but she feels more vulnerable as of late than she has in a long time. Her accomplishments on the battlefield and in Braavos doing little to alleviate it. For the first time since she was a child, she feels the insecurities warring inside her. The voice of Jeyne Poole, Septa Mordane, even Sansa, echoing in her head, reminding her that she’ll never be pretty enough, never be feminie enough, never be good enough. 

She’s managed to go the entire day without seeing him, a rare feat given how she’d normally planned her route around Winterfell to catch his eye at least once a day. She’s so caught up in her self deprecating thoughts that at supper she fails to notice Gendry watching her, even as she retreats to her chambers after supper she doesn’t see the way his eyes follow her across the hall. 

She spends the next few days in much the same way. On the fourth day, Winterfell welcomes a lord and his sons from the Veil, the party having lost their way in a small blizzard and needing a place to stay while they regroup. The following days are spent helping them reorient themelves to their path and for the first time in nearly a week, Arya doesn’t find herself dwelling on her broken heart or her imagined inadequacies. All of his sons are betrothed, so she doesn’t need to worry about anyone asking for her hand or her brother getting ideas. They’re also well trained in combat and are more than willing, after watching her train the young girls of Winterfell in water dancing, to test their abilities against her own. They’re impressed by her skill and only the oldest brother gets the better of her. She finds herself laughing and enjoying their company, happy to make new friends of these future lords. 

The party leaves early one morning, and Arya goes about her day, feeling as light as she had before. She returns to her old routine, no longer avoiding Gendry or the routes she usually takes through the castle. She meets his eye once or twice throughout the day, but he makes a point of looking away quickly when she does. She tries to pretend that doesn’t hurt. 

By supper she’s put it out of her mind. She goes through the meal, sharing a conversation with Tyrion on the hardships of the small folk she lived among for years, and what can be done to improve the quality of life for everyone. 

Late into the evening she excuses herself, heading for her chambers, ready to turn in for the night. The dress she chose for the evening is very simple and it takes very little to rid herself of it, leaving her in only her slip as a knock sounds at her door. Confused she opens it enough to peek out, finding Gendry on the other side. He’s shirtless, only his fur cloak over his shoulders and a flagon of wine dangling from his hand at his side. He’s leaning against the frame, one arm up over his head and the slightly unfocused look in his eyes tells her that he’s at least a little drunk. 

“Gendry?” she questions confused. “What are you doing here?” she has to force herself not to trace his defined torso, but she does catch the glint of silver around his neck, the small wolf head medallion glinting in the low fire light. 

“M’lady.” he says, his voice low and rough. She represses the urge to shiver at the sound of it. 

Suddenly he pushes through the door, forcing her to take a step back as he enters her chamber. He closes the door behind him, never looking away from her. She has to crane her neck back to meet his eye, their considerable height difference working against her yet again. 

“What are you doing?” she asks, taking a step back as he steps forward. 

“You’ve been avoiding me.” he says, a flush across his cheeks giving away his state. “You give me something like this.” he continues flicking the medallion. “And then you just walk away. What am I supposed to do with that?” he continues taking steps forward, Arya taking steps back. She knows he would never hurt her, that he’s no danger to her, but she can’t stop herself from putting distance between them.

“Gendry.” she says, but she doesn’t get to finish, Gendry slamming the flagon of wine on the table as they pass it. She flinches slightly. He looks angry now and it sparks her own anger. She reaches out and pushes at his chest as he tries to get closer. He’s caught off guard but he catches himself before he stumbles. Her fit of anger seems to sober him up and stands above her, welling up to his full height. “Piss off.” she tells him. 

Gendry laughs at her, enraging her more and she lashes out to strike him. He catches her wrists, transferring them into one of his enormous hands. “Always so feisty m’lady.” 

“Don’t call me that!” she exclaims, kicking out at his shin. He dodges a little too well for someone who’s supposedly drunk. He laughs again, yanking her forward by her wrists, pulling her into him and wrapping his arms around her, keeping her crushed against him. “What are you doing?” 

“You said you wanted to be my family, I thought you still wanted that, but then you just walk away, you avoid me all while spending time with your handsome lords.” he snarls. She stops struggling, looking up at him wide eyed. 

“You said no.” she whispers. 

Gendry looks down at her confused. “When did I say no? You walked away before…” clarity crosses his face and he sighs. “It’s been years Arry. I know you think I’m stupid, but I’ve learned alot since we’ve been apart. I know I made a mistake.” he says. “I thought… I thought I’d made that clear that night… before the battle.” 

“You never said anything after, I thought you were just protecting me.” 

“Protecting you?” he sounds skeptical, his arms loosening enough for her to pull back a few inches. “How exactly is taking your maidenhead protecting you?” 

“I thought you agreed to keep me from going to someone else.” 

“Would you have?” 

“No.” she replies. “I didn’t want anyone else. I don’t trust anyone else.” 

Gendry lets out a huff and she can feel him deflate against her. He leans his head down, resting his forehead against hers. “And those lords?” 

“They’re all betrothed of married. They’re just friends; allies.” she explains. Her eyes catch the medallion and she reaches up to run her fingers across the metal. She had to have one of the other blacksmiths forge it and it’s not nearly as good quality as it would be if he had made it. 

Gendry suddenly pulls away, wrapping his arms around her again and picking her up. She yelps as he tosses her back on the bed. She looks down to the foot of the bed where he stands, watching as he sheds the fur cloak. “Good.” he says, his voice a deep, rumbling growl again. His eyes rake over her barely closed form, and she’s suddenly very away of how transparent her chamise is. He continues as he climbs up the bed, holding himself over her. “You. Are. My. Lady.” 

Arya reaches up to him, wrapping her hand around the back of his neck and pulling him down to her. “And you’re my stupid bull.” he smirks, closing the distance between them. 


	10. Bad Friends

“Damn, who is that?” Jeyne Poole groaned, secretly watching the man at the rowing machine across the gym. 

“I don’t know,” Sansa replied. “But I bet he’d like to go to the gym without being ogled by a thirst bitch.” 

Jeyne huffed. “You’re so mean anymore.” she said, sitting back on the weight machine and restarting her reps. “Did you even look at him. He looks like he’s been carved from steel.” 

Sansa rolled her eyes, but looked up nonetheless. Jeyne was right of course, the man was extremely attractive. Dark hair, neatly groomed facial hair and thick cords of muscles in his arms and back. He had piercing blue eyes and a hard set look to his face that screamed dark and brooding. He looked familiar the longer she stared at him, but she couldn’t quite place where she had seen him before. 

“I’m going to go talk to him.” Jeyne spoke up as she finished. 

“No you’re not.” Sansa protested. “This is a gym, not a club.” 

Jeyne rolled her eyes. “When did you stop being fun. Seriously, you’re single now, you should be the first one over there.” 

“One, I’m still plenty of fun. Not wanting to harass someone while they work out does not make me less fun. Two, you know exactly why I’m not ready to date yet and your blatant ignorance of that fact is beyond telling.” 

Jeyne huffed. “Whatever.” she muttered under her breath. She looked across the room again, only to see the rowing machine now occupied by someone else. “Great, he’s gone, and who knows if I’ll ever see him again.” 

Sansa sighed, going back to her work out. 

Two days later, Sansa was again questioning why she still remained friends with Jeyne Poole. They were currently in her room at Stark Manor, and the other girl was pacing the floor at the end of Sansa’s bed complaining about how “rude” Arya was to her. Honestly, as far as Sansa was concerned, Jeyne deserved it. She’d spent their childhood tormenting Arya in school and even in her own home, and Sansa, unfortunately, let her get away with it. It took a lot of retrospection between she and her sister to heal the relationship they’d never let form, but they were finally to a place where they could legitimately say they liked being around each other. 

This again brought up the question, why Sansa was still friends with Jeyne Poole, who had not grown out of her childish attitude toward anyone she deemed beneath her. Arya for her part took it in stride. She was a lot stronger than Sansa in that regard. Instead of stooping to Jeyne’s level when the girl was being cruel, she merely ignored her. She didn’t acknowledge her presence, didn’t refer to her in anyway and she never spoke to her, not even when Jeyne spoke first. It was the least of what Jeyne deserved. 

Now Jeyne was pacing the floor, going off about how rude Arya was for just ignoring her and Sansa had to resist the urge to smirk. She didn’t know if it was Arya’s intention, or if she was just trying to rise above, but she was literally driving Jeyne insane. 

“You don’t even like her, why waste your time.” Sansa finally interrupted, standing from the bed. She was hungry and with or without Jeyne she was going downstairs to get something to eat. Jeyne of course, followed, still complaining about Arya. honestly, she could have at least cut her a break for a few days, the poor girl was cooped up in the house with a nasty cold. 

As they made it to the bottom of the stairs, a knock sounded at the door and Sansa turned to open it, stopping short at the man on the other side. “It’s fate.” Jeyne muttered behind her, taking in the sight of the man from the gym, now dressed in dark jeans, a t-shirt that must have been at least a size too small and a black leather jacket. 

“Hi, can I help you?” Sansa asks, snapping out of her stupor. 

“Yeah, I’m supposed to meet Jon and Robb.” he replied. 

“Oh, yeah, right, the concert, you must be Gendry.” She said, stepping aside to let him in. 

“And you must be Sansa.” he replied. 

“I am.” she said, feeling a slight jab in her back. “And this is my friend Jeyne.” she introduced them. Jeyne stepped up, smiling at him in a way that Sansa had only seen when she was after something. Gendry barely acknowledged her, a half smile, if you could even call it that, in return. Jeyne was nothing if not persistent, however. 

“We saw you at the gym a couple of days ago, didn’t we?” she asked. 

“Uh, probably.” he said. 

“I don’t think we’ve ever seen you there.” 

He looked uncomfortable talking to her, and Sansa wondered if perhaps Jon or Robb had mentioned her before. Neither of them particularly cared for her either. 

“Yeah, I usually go early in the morning, but my girlfriend was sick and I had to take her to the doctor.”

“Oh, how awful.” Jeyne said. 

“Yes, well, she’s usually my workout partner, so it weird not having her there.” he said and Sansa couldn’t help but notice that he was pointedly speaking to her and not Jeyne. There was a moment of clarity for her and then; 

“So how did you meet Robb and Jon? They only just recently started talking about you?” 

“Through my girlfriend.” he said, giving her a knowing look. Sansa smirked, but before she could say anything, Robb and Jon appeared from upstairs. 

“Hey mate.” Robb greeted him. “Ready to go?” Gendry agreed and with a quick goodbye to Sansa they were gone.

xXx

“Why are you still friends with her?” Jon asked as he plopped into the seat next to her. The family was gathered around the pool, Robb and Gendry talking over the grill in the outdoor kitchen, Rickon and Bran out in the yard playing with the dogs and now he and Sansa are sitting on the pool lounge chairs. Jeyne, who’d invited herself to the little gathering the day before, was sitting on a beach chair a little ways down, in perfect line with the grill where anyone there would have a perfect line of sight of her in her very skimpy bikini. “She knows he has a girlfriend.” 

“That’s never stopped her before. I didn’t tell her who his girlfriend was either, because I knew she’d try harder.” 

“There’s something fundamentally wrong with her.” Jon says leaning back in his chair. 

“I’m aware. I know this sounds awful, but I can’t wait for her to leave for her study abroad this semester.”

“Are you going to ghost her?” Jon laughed. Sansa shrugged. 

“I know that’s awful, but I can’t think of another way to pull away from her. We used to be good friends, it seems so wrong to be cruel about it.” 

“Maybe she’ll make new friends, or better yet, grow up.” Jon suggested. 

“Fingers crossed.” she replied, reaching for her phone as it buzzed. “Arya’s on her way home from training. She should be here soon.” 

“This oughta be good.” 

“Mmhmm.” 

Not long later, the back door opened and Arya stepped out, a beach towel in one hand a book in the other. She was already dressed, a simple black bikini and her oversized sunglasses. Sansa and Jon turned as one to spot Jeyne’s reaction. The scowl was enough to tell them everything they needed to know. As they watched her, they saw her scowl shift to outrage and turned back to find Arya in Gendry’s arms, her feet dangling off the ground as he held her to him, kissing her sweetly. She held on with her arms around his neck, laughing as Robb complained loudly about PDA. 

Arya laughed, wrapping her legs around Gendry’s waist and sticking her tongue out at Robb. Gendry laughed at Robb’s disgruntled look. 


	11. Bad Friends Part II

Arya thought it spoke volumes about their friendship that the first time Arya ever talks to Gendry is when she’s in a bad mood. For the last few weeks she’s seen him regularly, she’s pretty sure he’s new, she’s never seen him here before and at four in the morning in an empty gym, he’d be hard to miss. 

She mostly ignores him for the first week, but he does the same so she doesn’t feel bad about it. She’s spent the better part of her preteen and teenage years devoting herself to physical activity, sports and the like and she’s got a fairly strict routine down. Her discipline is going to carry her to another olympics and hopefully another gold metal. 

After awhile she finds herself noticing him a little more. He’s a massive guy, over a foot taller than her and she finds herself occasionally staring at the play of muscles in his arms and shoulders as he lifts weights and works at the rowing machine. She thinks he looks familiar but she can’t place him so she leaves it alone and focuses on her training. 

Then one day she comes in in a bad mood. Her work out suffers from it, her body tense as she tries to work through her routine and apparently he notices, because halfway through one of her sets she drops her weights by accident, just narrowly missing her foot. 

“Are you alright?” he asked, and she turned on him, frustration and anger and sadness warring on her face until she realizes he hasn’t done anything wrong. She took a deep breath to calm herself and replied;

“I’m fine, thanks.” 

He didn’t look convinced. “Are you sure?” 

Arya took another long, deep breath, letting out slowly. No, she really wasn’t okay. She was sad and hurt and vulnerable and on top of all of it she feels disappointed in herself for feeling any of that. She huffs, humorlessly. “No, I’m really not. I should be, but I’m not.” she sighed, turning back to pick up the weights again. She barely gets back into position before he’s in front of her again, stopping her. 

“Maybe you should take a minute? You don’t want to hurt yourself and keep yourself out of the competition next year.” he said, and she looks up at him confused. “Sorry, I know you don’t know me, but I can’t imagine anyone who does wouldn’t try to stop you.” 

“Have we met before?” she asked suddenly. “The first time I saw you I thought you looked familiar, but you clearly recognize me.” 

“Do you follow college rugby?” he asked. Recognition dawned on her as she looked up at him. 

“Northern U, Gendry Baratheon number 15. You caved Aegon Targaryen’s face in, in the last game, it was awesome.” for a moment everything that had been bothering her was gone as she watched the blush bloom across Gendry’s face. 

“Yeah, well, it was pretty satisfying to be honest.” 

Arya grinned. “I can imagine, he’s such a dick I’m surprised more people haven’t done that yet.” 

Not for lack of trying.” he replied. Arya laughed. 

“So why aren’t you working out at the school’s training facility? She asked. 

He shrugged. “Too many people, plus it doesn’t open until seven.” 

Arya grimaced. “That’s way too late to start to work out.” 

Gendry looked pleased as he replied; “Exactly! All of my teammates think I’m crazy for getting up this early, but while their off training past noon, I’m already done and on to something else.” 

“Yes! My siblings don’t get it either. My dad had to hire a care service before I could drive, because none of them wanted to get up so early to take me to the training center.” Gendry laughed. 

Eventually they got back to their work outs, but their dynamic changed after that. Soon enough they were melding their work outs, syncing up their routines to use the same machines or spot each other while lifting weights. It’s not long before their gym friendship spills out into the rest of their lives. 

“Is that Gendry Baratheon?” Robb asked one afternoon as Arya, Robb, Jon and their family friend Theon stood waiting for their coffee order early one morning. They were all bundled up for a late October morning, ready for a day of College Rugby. She was officially the favorite sister, having obtained tickets to that days game from Gendry. It was a rivalry game, so it was completely sold out and they didn’t know they were from him of course, only that she had a friend with an in. Honestly she wasn’t too thrilled with them finding out she was friends with him, mostly because it was becoming increasingly obvious that she couldn’t really good hide her little crush on him, if his half sister Myrcella’s observations were anything to go by. Thankfully, Gendry was socially awkward and totally oblivious. 

Unfortunately, before she could duck out of sight discreetly, Gendry spotted her and smiled. Knowing he would notice if she acted any differently around him, she smiled back, accepting the hug as he approached. 

“Ready for the game?” he asked. 

“I should be asking you that.” she replied before gesturing at the three men behind her. “This is my older brother Robb, my cousin Jon and our friend Theon.” she introduced them. 

“Nice to meet you.” Robb greeted him. “Lookin’ forward to the game today.” 

“Glad to hear it. It's good to finally meet all of you, I’ve heard a lot about you.”

“Wish we could say the same mate.” Jon replied, looking at Arya pointedly. 

“What?” Arya replied, feigning innocence. 

Gendry chuckled. “To be fair, I don't go around bragging that I work out with an Olympic gold medalist either. Privacy, ya know.” 

Arya grinned smugly at Jon, batting her eyelashes at him. He rolled his eyes and turned back to Gendry as Gendry turned to Arya. “So there’s going to be a party tonight after the game if your interested.”

“Yeah, that sounds great.” 

“Great, I’ll pick you up around eight?” 

She simply nods and Gendry turns to the others. “It was nice to meet you. I’m sure I’ll see you around.” 

When he’s gone, Robb turned to Arya with a knowing look. “So uh, how come you never mentioned that you work out with Northern U’s star prop?”

“Worried we’ll embarrass you?” Theon asked. 

“No, it wasn’t my place to say anything. He likes his privacy and quite frankly, so do I.” 

“Mmhmm. You sure it had nothing to do with your little crush on him.” Robb asked knowingly. 

“What? I don’t… That’s not…” she stumbled, struggling to find the words, until eventually she gave up. “Is it that obvious?” she looked pained. 

“Kind of.” Robb looked on sympathetically. “But if it makes you feel any better, he’s clearly got a thing for you too.” 

She’s pretty sure she looked a little too hopeful, because Robb grinned back at her when she asked; “You really think so?” 

“Totally.” Theon replied. “I mean he did just ask you out.” 

“No he didn’t.” she looked confused. “He invited me to an after game party.” They looked at her expectantly. She shook her head. “That’s not a date.”

“If he doesn't want tonight to be a date, I’ll eat my own shoe.” Robb told her. 

“Prepare to eat your shoe then.”


	12. Bad Friends Part III

“For someone whose so sure this isn’t a date, you look pretty nice.” Robb grinned, leaning on the doorframe of Arya’s room. Arya looked up from trying to apply mascara and glared at her brother. 

“I’m still going out, I  _ want  _ to look nice.” Arya replied. Before he could reply, Sansa’s voice popped up behind Robb.

“Ooo, you have a date tonight?” she asked, peeking around Robb. 

“No.” Arya replied just as Robb said;

“Sure does.” 

“He’s just a friend.” she defended. 

“Yeah, but he wants to be more.” Robb smirked as Sansa looked up at him excitedly. 

“No he doesn’t.” Arya argued and Sansa turned with a knowing grin. 

“You sound upset by that.”

“She is.” 

“Do you mind, I can speak for myself.” 

“So do you want him to want more?” Sansa asked. Arya rolled her eyes. 

“It doesn’t matter if I do or not, because he doesn’t.” she shrugged. 

“What makes you think he doesn’t?” 

“Because I’ve seen his ex-girlfriend.” Arya stood from her vanity, moving to her closet and disappearing inside. She reemerged now dressed in a leather mini skirt, with matching jacket and a black lace bralette underneath. In her hand she carried a pair of black studded combat boots. “She’s gorgeous. Huge boobs, full lips, almost as tall as him.” 

“What does that have to do with his interest in you?” Sansa asked. 

Arya looked at her incredulously. “Seriously? She was practically a supermodel.”

“And you’ve won multiple gold medals in the Olympics. You can’t compare yourself to other people. You’re your own person.” 

Arya sighed. “I know that. I just… he could have literally anyone he wanted. When we go out, girls hit on him all the time. Not a single one of them ever considers that we might be together, they just assume we’re only friends.” 

“Luckily, their opinions don’t matter compared to his.” 

Before Arya could reply, the doorbell rang. She got up, grabbing her phone off the nightstand. “That would be him. I’ll see you guys later.” 

Arya left her siblings behind descending the stairs and opening the front door to find Gendry on the other side. He was looking off to the side, but when she opened the door, he turned to look at her, his eyes widening at the sight of her. She looked down at herself, suddenly self conscious. 

“Is something wrong?” she asked, snapping him out of whatever thoughts had claimed him. 

“No, not at all. You look really nice.” he replied and she can feel heat bloom across her cheeks. 

“Thanks. You look nice too.” and he did. Dark wash jeans that she could tell hugged his ass and his Rugby jersey under a black leather jacket. “Ready to go?” 

“Yeah, if you are.” he said, stepping aside so she could step out onto the stoop. She closed the door behind her and followed him out to the driveway, where he left his car. She’s always loved his car. Gendry had grown up in the garage of his father’s estate, determined to keep his distance from his stepmother. He learned everything he could about cars and engineering and machining, basically anything he could do with his hands he wanted to learn and his father, impressed with his skill, had bought him an old car to restore. He did, then sold it. Then he bought another old car, restored it and sold it afterward as well. He continued to do this for years, until he was sixteen and restored a 1970 GTO, which he kept for himself. 

Arya would be lying if she said she hadn’t thought about all the fun they could have in the back seat, but she put it aside as she climbed into the passenger seat, trying not to think too much of the fact that he had opened her door for her. 

xXx

The party was at one of his team mates homes. A large mansion on the outskirts of Wintertown. Arya had enjoyed it from the very beginning, but she had always been a social butterfly, as he mother liked to say. Gendry, on the other hand, was a very private person and quite frankly, would undoubtedly prefer to be at home watching movies than here working on a hangover. She wasn’t entirely sure why he asked her to come here with him if he didn’t want to go at all, and judging by the way he was sticking close to her, he definitely didn’t want to be here. 

“You okay?” Arya asked, forcing Gendry to lean over so he can hear her. 

“Yeah, why?” 

“You don’t look like you want to be here.” she told him. He hesitated, then replied;

“I kinda don’t?” he looked like it pained him to say it, and Arya laughed. 

“Then let’s go.” 

He shook his head. “You’re having fun, I don’t want to take that away from you.” he told her. 

Something in the way he looked down at her, lit a flame of hope in her chest and she answered without thought; “Don’t be stupid, stupid, I’m only having fun cause your here.” 

Gendry smiled. “Yeah?” she nodded. “How about this? We have one more drink and then we head back to my flat and watch that movie you wanted to see?” 

She smiled back. “Sounds good.” 

He nodded. “I’ll get us another one.” he replied, turning to head for the kitchen. When he was gone, Arya pulled out her phone shooting off a text to Sansa. 

**Arya:** Don’t tell Robb, but I think he was right.

**Sansa:** YESSSS!!!! I want details when you get home!

Arya smiled to herself as she read her sisters reply, oblivious to the presence that approached. 

“What are you doing here?” a familiar voice sounded behind her. Arya sighed, tensing at the snotty tone. She turned to find Jeyne standing there, hands on her hips and three other girls standing behind her. She vaguely recognized them from their few shared classes in high school. 

“Why does it matter?” Arya replied. 

Jeyne scoffed. “I’m just asking, no need to be a bitch.” 

Arya rolls her eyes. Jeyne Poole was a blight on the face of Arya’s otherwise good life. From an early age, she had made it a point to torment Arya, calling her vicious names, and going out of her way to tear her down. The worst part was the fact that Sansa had allowed it to happen and on a few occasions, joined in. It was only recently they had worked out their issues, but Jeyne still stuck around, still behaved like they were in middle school. From the very beginning it was obvious that Jeyne was the type of person who rode coattails, and in this case, she was riding Sansa’s. Sansa was rich and popular and while Jeyne came from a wealthy family as well, she wasn’t first family wealthy like The Starks. 

“I have friends on the team, they invited me.” she finally replied. She should just walk away, but she didn’t want Gendry to have to search for her. 

“Of course you do.” she rolled her eyes. “The only way any man would be interested in you.” her friends laughed and Arya squinted at them like she couldn’t believe they were real. 

“Do you hear yourself when you speak?” she asked, silencing them. “You’re twenty-five, why don’t you act like it? I know you peaked in junior high, but maybe if you actually put some effort into growing up, you’d achieve something for once in your miserable life.” 

“You stupid bitch.” Jeyne exclaimed in outrage, stepping forward and raising her hand. Arya grabs her wrist before she can slap her and pushes it away. 

“Could you be anymore cliche?” Arya asked, just as two larger guys approached, one of which she recognized as the owner of the house. 

“Hey, if your going to act like that you need to leave.” he told Jeyne, who looked up at him outraged. 

“Are you kidding me?” she exclaimed. 

“No, I’m not. Get out of my house.” he told her, herding her and the other girls toward the door, leaving Arya alone when Gendry appeared. 

“Are you alright?” he asked, a beer in either hand. Arya looked up at him and nodded. 

“Fine.” she replied, taking one of the drinks. She chugged it, emptying it in five gulps. 

“Yeah, you’re totally fine.” he muttered. 

“You wanna get out of here?” she asked, catching her breath. 

“Yeah, sure.” he agreed, setting his beer on a table and following her out of the house. The entire drive to his flat was quiet and Gendry forced himself to keep his eyes on the road. He’d only been gone for a few minutes, but by the time he stepped back out of the kitchen, looking out over the crowd he’d spotted those girls with Arya. it was obvious she knew them and then the girl she had been talking to got angry and lashed out. He’d started forcing his way across the room then, only for his teammates to beat him there. By the time he made it to her side they were all gone and Arya was left looking upset and angry. 

Gendry pulled into his parking space in his apartment complex and Arya jumped out of the car as he turned it off. He got out, leading her up to his apartment. Once inside she begged off to the bathroom while he set up the movie. 

“Don’t let her get to you.” she muttered under her breath as she stared at her reflection in the mirror. She’d spent years letting Jeyne get under her skin, making her feel like she was ugly and alone and unwanted. Not anymore. She was above that, she was strong. She knew her value. And yet as she stared at her reflection in the mirror, she couldn’t help but pick out all of her insecurities. 

Arya took a deep breath, realizing she’d been gone a little too long and made her way out into the living room where Gendry was waiting on the sofa. His jacket was gone and she removed hers, goosebumps rising up as the cold hit her. 

“Do you want a hoody?” he asked as she sat down. 

“Do you mind?” 

He shook his head, jumping up and disappearing down the hall. He returned quickly, carrying the black zip up hoody she’s seen him wear to the gym on multiple occasions. “Thanks.” she took it, slipping it on. She was immediately surrounded by the smell of his soap, spicy and sharp and surprisingly comforting. 

“So...um… can I ask you something?” he spoke up, reclaiming his seat and watching her cuddle down into his hoody. She looked at him expectantly. “Who was that girl?” 

Arya took a deep breath, letting it out slowly. “Her name is Jeyne Poole. She was my sister’s best friend growing up.”

“And you don’t like each other?” 

She shook her head, looking away. “I barely know her. She doesn’t like me and I have no idea why.” she explained. “When we were kids she used to torment me. She used to call me Arya Horseface and then neigh whenever I walked by.”

“Seriously?” he asked. He sounded angry and Arya looked up at him, seeing the anger in his voice play across his face. She simply nodded. “And your sister just let her do that?”

“Sometimes she joined in.” she told him. “It’s taken a lot of discussion for us to get passed all of that.” she shook her head again. “None of that matters now though. I’m well passed letting her get under my skin.”

“Good.” he replied. “Movie?” 

She smiled. “Yes please.” she smiled back, turning the TV on and starting up the movie. Arya kicked off her shoes, getting comfortable. About half way through the movie, she grabbed a pillow from the end of the couch and set it against Gendry’s leg, laying down against it. 

Arya isn’t sure when she fell asleep, but the next thing she knew, she felt the pillow under her shift and she looked up to find Gendry standing over her. 

“Hey.” he said, running a hand through her hair. 

She sighed. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean to fall asleep.” she replied. 

Gendry chuckled. “Don’t worry about it. It’s late, you can stay here tonight if you want.” she simply nodded, closing her eyes, ready to drift back to sleep. She was just falling asleep when she felt herself lifted up, startling her awake. 

“What are you doing?” she asked groggy, looking around as he carried her through the apartment. 

“Going to bed.” he chuckled. “I’m not letting you sleep on the sofa all night, you’ll be sore in the morning.” he continued, stepping into his bedroom. He set her down on his bed, and she sat up as he stepped away, mostly awake now. Gendry turned from the dresser carrying a pair of sweatpants and a t-shirt. He set them on the bed next to her. “I’m going to grab a quick shower. Make yourself at home.” 

“Kay.” she muttered as he grabbed a few more things out of the dresser and ducked into the bathroom. When he was gone, Arya quickly changed, folding her clothes and set them aside. They were way too big on her, the legs well passed her own feet and the shirt falling off her shoulder. She smiled though, climbing into bed and taking a deep breath. Everything smelled like him and she was lulled back to sleep quickly, waking only long enough to realize Gendry had gotten into bed. 

xXx

Arya woke with the feeling of steel bands around her waist and something solid at her back. It took a moment to remember where she was. She turned to look over her shoulder, studying the soft lines of his face. He was so pretty. She couldn’t stop looking at him. Long eyelashes brushed his cheek bones, neatly trimmed hair framed his mouth and covered his chin. He was just too pretty to be real, but he was real. 

He must have felt her watching him, because it wasn’t long before he began to stir, eyes fluttering open and landing squarely on her as they focused. He smiled when he met her eye. 

“Good morning.” he greeted her, voice rough from sleep. The deep timber of his voice raked over her nerves and she had to resisted the sudden urge to grind back against him and the bulge she suddenly realized was pressing against her. He didn’t seem to notice and she wasn’t about to bring it up. Instead she turned around to face him, his arms loosening to let her move around. “Sleep well?” he asked. 

“Yes. Thank you.” she smiled. “You?”

“Mmm.” he hummed. Silence fell between them and Arya eventually closed her eyes, curling up against his chest, her head tucked under his chin. He went along with it easily, pulling her closer. “Want to skip the gym this morning?”

“Yes please.” she muttered, dozing off to sleep again. 

When she woke again some time later, it was Gendry who was watching  _ her _ this time. She smiles shyly up at him and curled in again, loving the way his chest rumbled as he chuckled. 

“Can I ask you something?” He said.

“Anything.” She replied. 

“I want you to be honest and remember that even if our answers aren’t the same, it won’t change anything between us. I won’t let it.” 

At the somewhat seriousness of his tone, Arya looked up, concern shining in her eyes. “Okay.” 

“Did you… think of last night as a date?” 

“I… I wanted to…” she said, her voice full of concern. He could promise nothing would change all he wanted, but if they weren’t on the same page, they certainly weren’t going to be able to get passed that easily, if at all.

Gendry smiled, and the nervous ball of tension that had tightened in her chest, released. 

“Glad we’re on the same page.” 


	13. Peeping Part III

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Sorry I haven't been posting for Maisie Month like I did for Joe month. I'm going on vacation next week and I've been busy getting work ready for my absence and making sure I have everything I need at home.

“You look like you’ve been hit by a bus?” Arya grinned, watching Gendry as she slides into the booth across from him. 

“My mouth tastes like I licked Nymeria.” Gendry replied, his eyes hidden behind big, dark sunglasses she’s pretty sure are hers. She grimaced at the image that invaded her mind. “I know that we’re supposed to talk about something important right now, but I can feel my brain pulse every time I try to think.” 

Arya tried not to laugh, she really did, he can see it in the way she tries to keep her lips from tilting upward, but there’s something about Gendry slumped over the table, barely keeping his head up to look at her, that amused her to no end. 

“I told you, you were going to miserable today.” she said, a little smug. He rolled his eyes, groaning at the headache it flared up and dropping his head on his arms. She laughed. “Come on, I’ll buy you breakfast.” she said. 

Gendry starts to perk up after his first cup of coffee and the greasy breakfast goes a long way to curing his headache. When they’re finished eating and Arya pays, they leave the little diner and make their way toward Gendry’s car. “Where did you park?” he asked. 

“I had Sansa drop me off before she took Margaery home.” Arya explained. 

“Great, wanna head back to my house? Everyone’s out for the day.” 

“Yeah, that sounds nice.” she replied. The trip over was relatively quiet. Gendry wasn’t all that keen on speaking until the last of his headache had subsided. Thankfully by the time they make it his home, it’s mostly gone. 

Gendry leads her into the house and up to his room, collapsing on the bed when they finally make it. He heard Arya chuckle and peeked an eye open to find her browsing the blurays on his shelf. He watches her, following the line of her jeans along the curve of her ass. He’s spent most of their young adult life crushing on her, a fact he kept bottled up tight in the hopes of not ruining their friendship. In recent years, however, it was pointed out by some of their mutual friends that she liked him too and while he was hesitant to believe that, there was a hope that welled up in his chest everytime someone brought it up. 

After the incident at the field a few days ago, that hope had been stronger than ever. Still, though, there was doubt and the fact that she was obviously avoiding him didn’t help matters at all. But now she was here. Here with him after admitting that she had been talking about him that day. They may not have gotten the chance to talk about anything yet, but the knowing was all he needed at the moment. Everything else could wait. 

Arya chose a movie and set it up on the television. Once that was done, she moved to the bed, kicked off her shoes and curled up next to him like she had so many times before, but this time everything was different. 

Gendry drifted off to sleep about half way through and when he finally woke up, the sun was much lower in the sky and Arya was fast asleep next to him, her head pillowed on his chest, his arm around her. 

“Hey.” he called softly, gently waking her. Arya stirred, slowly opening her eyes. She groaned as she pulled away, rubbing the sleep from her eyes. Gendry smiled as he watched her. “Guess we fell asleep.” he said softly. She grumbles just as softly. 

“How are you feeling?” she asked, laying her head back down against his chest. 

“Much better actually.” 

“Good.” she buried her face in his chest for a second before looking up at him. “I’m glad.” 

Gendry stared down at her, everything he had wanted to say before suddenly feeling inadequate. So he went with his instinct, leaning down and kissing her as if they’d done it a hundred times before. And the best part, he quickly realized, she reacted as though they had. 

Whatever soft, chaste kiss he had assumed they would share quickly turned into more, Arya lifting up, throwing her leg over his waist and straddling his hips. Gendry gripped her hips instinctively, holding on as she suddenly began to grind against him. 

“Fuck Arry.” he moaned when she pulled away to catch her breath. She doesn’t stay away long, latching onto his neck and sucking marks into the column of it from his chin to his shoulder. He finds himself grinding back against her in earnest now, holding her tightly to him. 

Gendry flipped her over, hovering over her, a tiny yelp working its way from between her lips at the sudden movement. He chuckled, before doing to her what she did to him. He loved the sound of her moans, her legs coming up to wrap around his waist, writhing up against him while he grinds down on her.

“Gendry.” she gasped. “I want you…” she can’t seem to get the words out and Gendry can’t help the smug satisfaction he feels at that fact. He’s all too happy to divest her of her clothes, slowly, piece by piece until there’s nothing left between them but his own. He pulled away only long enough to remove his own and then he’s on her again, trailing nips and kisses down her body until he settles over her core. 

“Fuck me.” she breathed. Gendry smirked. 

“As milady commands.” he replied, diving into her folds with a wild abandon he knows she loves. It’s not long before she’s panting and gasping and pulling at his hair. He’s half concerned she’s going to rip it out, but he thinks it’ll be worth it if she does. 

He could feel her legs tightening around him, her head caught between her knees. It’s not long before she cums, body wracked with convulsions as she screams silently at the ceiling. 

“Fuck me.” she whimpered as she came down from her peak, breathing heavily. 

“Gladly.” he replied, leaning over his nightstand and rummaging around in the drawer. He pulled out a condom and as soon as she sees it she takes it from him, slipping it on for him. He leaned over her, lining himself up and teasing her until she complains. 

Arya threw her head back, gasping as he slid in to the hilt. 

“Fuck.” he cursed as she gripped him. “So fucking tight.” he grunted. She laughed, wrapping her legs around his waist and encouraging him to move. He started slow, gradually picking up his pace until he was pounding into her with a wild abandon. 

“Fuck yes.” she moaned, nails digging into his back and shoulders. He can feel the burn of them as they rake up and down his skin. He can only imagine what his back will look like when she’s done. “Harder.” she insisted as the coil winds tighter. He obliges, and it’s not long before she snaps, convulsing around him and screaming his name loudly. He isn’t far behind her, rutting against her as she came down from her high until he too feels the release he was chasing.

“That was definitely not what I intended.” Gendry said as they laid side by side, her head pillowed on the inside of his arm. 

“But not disappointing right?” she asked and he can hear the self consciousness in her voice. 

“Definitely not disappointing.” he grinned, rolling over and pulling her to him. 


	14. Delayed Reaction

It was the last time she would ever listen to Sansa. She couldn’t believe she had actually believed her sister. Despite all evidence to the contrary, she had actually believed that Sansa was trying to help her, that she was finally willing to be the sister Arya never felt Sansa wanted to be to her. She would never make that mistake again. 

Arya’s story was a tale as old as time. She and her best friend, Gendry Waters, had been inseparable for years. Since they were in grade school and at some point in their friendship, Arya suddenly realized that some of the weird feelings she had when he was around were because she liked him as more than a friend. The problem was, Gendry was a safe port in the stormy sea that was her life and she was hellbent on not fucking that up. So she buried it all deep down inside her and locked it away with all the other things she refused to address (like the distance she felt from her siblings sometimes, or how she felt like a disappointment to her mother, or how she always felt out of place in her own skin and all her personability was just her way of covering that up). But as they got older it became harder and harder to push it away. Gendry was growing into an attractive young man. There were girls lusting after him all the time. A day doesn't go by that one of their classmates doesn’t try to flirt with him, or ask him out, and Arya knew if she didn’t say something she would have to start distancing herself from him to protect herself from the inevitable pain of watching him with someone else. 

It was Sansa who convinced her that he felt the same and that she should say something to him. She pushed Arya for months to tell him how she felt. At first she was suspicious. She and Sansa barely tolerated each other on a good day, she couldn’t imagine why she would want to help her now. But the more she pushed the more Arya started to think, hope, that she really wanted to help, that she really wanted to be her sister despite years of telling her otherwise. So, she listened. She told Gendry how she felt and she watched the shock filter across his face, her hope fading with every second too long it took for his to answer. She silently begged him to say something, anything, but when he did, she wished he hadn’t said anything at all. 

_ Thank you. _ Who says thank you when their best friend admits they’ve had a crush on them for years. Gendry Waters that’s who. Big, stupid, Gendry Waters, who was fit and handsome and popular despite his quiet, broody nature. Gendry Waters who called her Arry and laughed at all of her stupid jokes and never took her shit and always gave back as much as he took. Gendry Waters who was there for her everytime she felt like the world was caving in around her, who held her while she sobbed after she was stood up for her first date. Gendry Waters, the boy who made her feel like she wasn’t some ugly toad her parents got stuck with, who reminded her that she wasn’t weird for not liking the things her sister did. Gendry Waters, who carved out a place in her heart when they were six years old and he helped her defend one other their classmates, a boy who would become just as good a friend, from a bunch of bullies. 

Gendry Waters who said thank you when she told him that she’d had feelings for him for years and was too afraid to tell him. Who stood there dumbly before even saying that much. 

“Arya?” Sansa’s voice filters through her bedroom door before it opens enough for to poke her head through. Arya looks up, glaring at her sister, tears staining her face. “Of seven, what happened?” she continues, opening the door enough for her to step in. 

“Get out.” Arya grinds out through clenched teeth. 

“What…”

“I said get out!” she yells. Sansa stands in the doorway, eyes wide. “I trusted you! You said he felt the same. I fucking trusted you!” Arya jumps up from the bed, storming toward the door. She shoves Sansa back. “I thought you finally wanted to be my sister, I thought we were going to be okay now, I thought you really wanted to help and I trusted you. I’ll never make that mistake again.” she doesn’t wait for an answer, slamming the door in her face. She moves back to her bed, collapsing on the mattress face down. It’s not long before she hears Sansa again. 

“Arya please, open the door. Tell me what happened.” she calls through the old wood. “I swear, he does, everyone can see it. Please just talk to me.” 

“Go away!” 

And she does. Arya spend the next few days avoiding everyone. She refuses to answer her phone, especially when Gendry calls, she won’t eat dinner with the family, she won’t even talk to her father or Jon about what happened. She just needs to get through a few days and then she’ll be off to camp for the next month. She’ll go away and everything will blow over and maybe when she gets back they can pretend she didn’t make a fool of herself in front of her best friend; that she didn’t trust the sister that’s spent almost all of their lives wishing Arya had never been born and reminding her that she didn’t belong. And through all of this she doesn’t let herself think about the fact that Sansa started crying when she said all of those things because that would mean acknowledging that maybe Sansa did want to help and she just misread the situation. Like everything else she would lock it up and bury it deep, letting it fester until she couldn’t even look at it anymore. 

xXx

Arya spends the first week of camp in a funk. She goes about her activities, but the friends she made years ago, the last time she was here, don’t know what’s happened and they can’t help her if she won’t talk to them, and she doesn’t. She just wants it to go away and she’s convinced herself that talking about it will only make it worse. 

Gendry hasn’t tried to call her since the morning she left and she tries not to dwell on the pain that thought brings her. So she pushes it aside and just takes everything one day at a time. 

One movie night two weeks into her stay, she begs off early to use the showers in private. It’s rare anyone gets the opportunity and Arya likes to take advantage when she can. She takes her time, enjoying the warm water and letting all her troubles wash down the drain. When she finishes, she dries, wraps her towel around her and steps out of the stall, only to yelp in surprise when she finds someone leaning against the sink. 

“Gendry?” she asks confused. “What are you doing here?” 

“I need to talk to you?” 

“So you drove all the way up here?” she sounds incredulous, but there’s a little part of her, a part that sounds suspiciously like Sansa, cooing over how romantic that is. 

“What else was I supposed to do? You won’t answer my calls.” 

She deflates a bit, rolling her eyes and stepping passed him. “Why would I, there’s nothing to talk about.” 

“Nothing… Are you kidding me? We have a lot to talk about.” he replies, turning to face her as she steps up to the counter. He watches as she grabs her brush, running it through her wet hair. 

“No, we really don’t. I don’t need to hear anything, okay? Just go home and when I get back we can just pretend it never happened.” 

“I don’t want to pretend it didn’t happen, I want to talk about this.” 

“We don’t need to talk about it.” she insists. “I don’t want to hear anything you have to say about it. Okay, I get it, you don’t feel the same, I’ll get over it, let’s just move on.” 

“No.” 

“Why not?” she asks. She’s bordering on whining now, but she can’t help it. She just wants this conversation to be over. She wants him to leave her to brooding so she can work on forgetting the biggest embarrassment of her life. 

“Because I do feel the same way.” he tells her, he practically shouts it at her and she’s so surprised she struggles to process what he’s just said. 

“What?” she breathes. 

“I said, I do feel the same. I like you too. I have for awhile I just didn’t realize it until you said something and I had the chance to think about it.” 

She shakes her head. “I don’t think I understand.” 

He sighs. “Okay, so...I’ve always known you were special to me, there’s  _ very  _ little I wouldn’t do for you. If you called me tomorrow to help you hide a body I would be there in a heartbeat, no questions asked. I hated watching you date other people, and I told myself it was because I didn’t want to lose my best friend. And when I was the one with a girlfriend and anytime anything good happened to me, you were the one I thought of to call first, not them. I thought it was just because you were my best friend, but… after what you said, when I couldn’t think of anything else to say, I really thought about it and I realized that’s why. That’s why I didn’t like any of your boyfriends and why you were always my first call, for anything. I feel the same way.” 

She doesn’t think about it, she just reacts, colliding with him, her lips on his and her hands coming up to grip his face. He responds in kind, hands on her hips, fingers digging into her skin through the towel. He’s got her back up against the counter in one second and is lifting her to sit on the counter in the next. Her legs are around his hips, keeping him boxed in against her. 

He pulls away to catch his breath and she follows instinctively, latching onto the side of his neck. “Fuck Arry.” he curses, tugging at the ends of her wet hair to pull her back. “I think we should slow down a little.” he chuckles at her pout. “I promise I’ll make it up to you.” 

“You better. I mean I’m in a towel, it doesn’t get any easier than this for you.” 

He looks pained at her words, looking her over in said towel. He takes a deep breath, letting it out slowly as he leans against the counter, hands on either side of her. She grins at the effect she has on him. 

“Two weeks.” he says. “I’ll pick you up from the bus stop.” 

“Don’t be late.”

“I wouldn’t  _ dream  _ of it.” he tells her, kissing her hard. He trails his lips to her neck, sucking a mark into her skin and grinding up against her until she panting, on the verge of begging. He pulls away abruptly, stepping back. She’s flushed and short of breath, her eyes glazed over in lust. “Two weeks.” he says, before turning on his heels and bolting out of the showers.


	15. Drunken Shenanigans

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> Prompt for Anniephl  
PROMPT? Arya/Gendry.... Drunken shenanigans -- after a large hangout/ party, lots of Starks & friends, a few linger & show off their secret talent/ "party trick"? Arya: athletic & flexible, splits or flips? Pod: tongue loop & "dance", helps to please ladies? Gendry: bench press Robb? Etc... ;)

Gendry should have known it would devolve quickly. He’d heard enough stories to know it usually did after they all got to drinking just a bit too much, but they did it anyway and now here they were, hours after the other guests had wandered off leaving the older Stark kids and their close friends behind.

It started with Theon, go figure, who claimed he could shove twenty marshmallows in his mouth. Arya, ever the instigator,(and wasn’t he learning that first hand himself) insisted he prove it and ran off to get marshmallows. They only had the mini ones though, and so after holding a panel of impartial drunk adults, they decided the equivalent of twenty regular marshmallows was forty mini marshmallows, but only because no one felt like getting up to get the kitchen scale. Theon made it to fifteen before Podrick said something snarky causing Theon to inhale sharply and choke on one. Robb administered the heimlich while everyone else laughed at him and it was decided that they would all just believe him and spare him having to start over. 

The damage was done though. Not long after the group had settled from the marshmallow incident, as it would be dubbed in later years, Sansa made a joke about being flexible which then turned into a competition to see which of the Stark Girls was more flexible. Arya would admit later that she was impressed when Sansa looped her ankles behind her neck, it certainly got Theon and Podrick going, but Arya had spent her entire life in and out of the athletics departments of every boarding school and university she’d attended and there was unanimous agreement that she had won when she bent herself nearly in half backwards. She caught sight of Jon’s new roommate Gendry across the firepit and winked at him (she had been openly flirting with him all night despite his effort to remain unseen), watching the blush tint his cheeks as he sputtered into his beer. 

That of course drew attention to him, something he had been avoiding vehemently all night, and Jon proceeded to drunkenly tell them how strong Gendry was. Intrigued, Arya led the charge, poking and prodding until he agreed to prove it. “Bench press someone.” Theon suggested helpfully (Arya’s hand immediately shot up, but oblivious, her brothers merely informed her she wasn’t much of a challenge weight wise. She assured them she made up for it in other ways and none of them seemed to get it. Gendry was starting to think none of her siblings actually saw her as an adult with adult feelings) and stoically, Gendry unfurled all six plus feet of himself from the lawn chair and grumbled for a volunteer. Robb, who was the closest to Gendry’s size, though still paled in comparison, stood up and within a few minutes they had configured themselves along the bench in front of the firepit. Gendry got in thirty reps before he no longer felt like humoring them and dropped Robb back on his feet. 

Gendry got up and made his way back to his chair which Arya had claimed when they were displaced from the bench. She smiled cheekily up at him, still insisting on flirting with him. It occurred to him then that she might actually be interested in him and not just driving her cousin insane, who once or twice before the alcohol kicked in, had seemed bothered by it. With that in mind he reached down when she wouldn’t move, scooped her up and sat her on his lap. No one seemed to notice the exchange, which was good, because it was about as forward as Gendry would ever get around other people, especially people he had just met. 

After about twenty minutes, Gendry would wish he hadn’t been so forward, even with as good as Arya felt leaned back against him, because in addition to her continued physical teasing while everyone was distracted, Podrick proceeded to inform the group of his own special talent, a lady killer, as he called it, to the cheers of the men present and the boos of the women. He then proceeded to show them how flexible his tongue was which only made things that much worse. 

Sansa asking Podrick if he was seeing anyone was decidedly not that bad, it was funny in fact, especially when her words caught up with her brother’s alcohol addled brain. Arya, however, decided the distraction caused by Robb’s sudden desire to fist fight Podrick was the perfect opportunity to turn to him and ask;

“Can you do that?” 

For the rest of their lives he will publicly blame the alcohol for his reply; “Want to find out?”

Arya grins and while everyone is trying to break up the fight, she takes his hand and leads him away. 


	16. Cursed

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Scarletnerd05  
Ooh your prompt list was so hard to pick from, i want them all haha. May i have Arya/Gendry please “I got cursed and turned into an animal and taken to the shelter and ended up getting adopted by someone who is really hot OH NO” - Also can i have more than one please because i wasn't joking about wanting all the prompts haha

He wants to say he deserved this, but deep down, the little part of him that knows better than to think that way, knows he doesn’t. All he did was get mixed up with the wrong woman. He thought she liked him, so she was a little older, lots of older women were interested in younger guys and he wasn’t so down on himself that he didn’t know he was nice to look at. How was he supposed to know she was a witch, or that her only interest in him was his recently discovered bloodline, or the money he was set to inherit or the fact this uncle wasn’t convinced that a bastard should get anything much less what he believed should have been his. Alright, maybe he should have seen that last one, she was Stannis’ assistant after all. 

All he had wanted was someone in his life who didn’t expect a lot. He wasn’t the type to go out and party, he didn’t particularly like social gatherings and he wasn’t very talkative, but he had been alone for so long he was beginning to feel the drag of it and he stupidly thought that his smart, successful, older woman might want to help him get rid of it. Now he would pay for that naivete. 

The bell above the door rings as it opens and Gendry peers out of the bars of the small cat carrier he was shoved into. Why was he in a cat carrier you might ask, well, what else would a witch turn someone into? 

“Hi, can I help you?” he hears ahead of him, but he can’t see past the front desk. The voice sounds familiar, but he can’t quite place it at the moment.

“Yes,” Melisandre says, putting on a cadence of sadness. “I’m… well, I'm here to surrender my cat.” she says, and Gendry rolls his eyes. Surely no one was dumb enough to fall for her crocodile tears. 

“Oh, I’m sorry to hear that. Can I ask why?” the woman continues as the carrier is lifted over the desk and set, just a bit too hard, on the counter. 

“He’s, well he’s a bit violent.” she whispers conspiratorially. “It’s strange, he was so nice when I first took him in but now he’s just so mean all the time.” she sighs. “I suppose that’s what I get for taking in a  _ tom  _ cat.” 

“I see.” the other woman speaks again. “Well, we’ll gladly take him in. Does he have a name?” 

“Excellent. His name is Gendry.” Melisandre replies a little too quickly. “Good luck.” she continues and a second later he hears her expensive heals clicking across the floor to the door. The bell rings again before he hears the woman say; “What a bitch.” under her breath.

A moment later a familiar face peeks in at him and he’s suddenly very aware of why her voice sounded familiar. Weasel, that’s what everyone called her. Her real name was Westly, Westley Rodante and she was the front desk assistant for the local Animal Welfare Agency. He’d met her numerous times when he’d come in on the days Arya was volunteering. 

Weasel huffs. “Well no wonder you’re so angry, this carrier is way too small for you.” she tells him as if she’s talking to a person. She opens the carrier door and Gendry crawls out without much prompting. She had been right, the carrier was far too small for a full grown cat, especially, if he was right about the way he looked, a full grown maine coon. She reaches out tentatively toward him and scritches around his ears. To his horror he purrs, leaning into it. “Aww, see you're so sweet. That mean old lady doesn’t know what she’s talking about.” 

Gendry meowed in agreement, leaning more into her hand. 

“What old lady?” another voice sounds and Gendry sits up straight, pulled from his stupor by the familiarity of it. He turns to find the most beautiful woman in the world stepping out of the back, files in hand. 

Dr. Arya Stark had been his best friend since he was sixteen years old, which probably wasn’t a good thing given the five year age difference. She was very determined to make him her friend though, and who was he to argue with her. 

Gendry watches in utter fascination as her face lights up at the sight of him. Could it be that she recognizes him, it wouldn’t be too big a stretch, she does have old magic running through her family line and even she herself is a Warg. 

“Who is this?” she asks, tossing her files on the check in desk and stepping up to the counter. She reaches out to him and he goes willingly, as he always does when she needs him, running her fingers through his fur and massaging his face. He begins to purr again, leaning into her. 

“See, I don’t get it. The woman who dropped him off said he was violent. I even saw bite and scratch marks on her hands. Gendry feels a spark of pride. That’ll teach her to mess with him. Up until that point she had intended to keep him as a pet from what he could tell, but his consciousness had remained unexpectedly and now she had to be rid of him before he clawed her face off in her sleep. 

“She probably just didn’t know how to handle such a magnificent creature.” Arya replies, reaching out and scooping him up. “I don’t think we’ll have a difficult time adopting him out.” he cuddles into her, taking the comfort of a familiar face in such a difficult time. “Let’s get you a check up and then we’ll figure out where to put you.” Arya continues, carrying him into one of the exam rooms. She sets him on the steel table and gets to work checking him over. He’s only slightly mortified when she lifts his tail to take his temperature but when she lifts his legs to check other things he thinks this might be the worst part of this entire experience. 

Growing up, Arya had meant a lot to him, but it wasn’t until about five years earlier that he realized he loved her. It just sort of hit him one day. She was visiting him from Storm’s End where she was working her first job as a large animal vet in the country when he just sort of realized the feelings he had whenever she laughed or smiled or was near were more than feelings of friendship. 

And now she had seen his balls…  _ excellent _ . 

“What the verdict, Doc.” Weasel asks as she comes back out with him. 

“All healthy.” Arya replies, rubs her check on the top of his head, muttering absently about how soft he is. It almost cuts down on the mortification over his physical exam. “Alright,” she speaks up as she makes her way into the back kennel. “He’s the last one for the day. I’m going to head home.” 

“In a hurry?” Weasel asks, surprised, then she grins. “Hot date?” 

Arya sighs. “No unfortunately, going out with Gendry tonight.” 

“Hey, that’s what the lady said the cat’s name was.” 

Arya laughs, stopping in front of an empty kennel. “Gendry would absolutely hate that. I’m tempted to take him home just to piss with him.” 

From over her shoulder, Gendry sees Weasel give her a sad smile, but he doesn’t get the chance to think about it before Arya tries to lift him into the kennel. Instinctively his claws extend, catching in her shirt. She tries to pull him free as gently as she can, but he’s not letting go. It suddenly occurs to him that she’s leaving and that she only works at the shelter once a month. If she leaves him here he could end up getting adopted out to some stranger, and then he’ll have no hope whatsoever of finding a way to reverse what Melisandre did to him.

“I don’t think he wants to go in the kennel.” Weasel says. 

“I don’t think so either.” Arya replies, pulling him back against her. “He’s shaking.” she continues and it takes a moment for Gendry to realize she’s right, he is shaking. The sudden jolt of terror at the idea of being stuck like this forever has shaken him a bit more than he thought and he rests his head into the crook of her shoulder, purring as she scratches at his ears. “What did that woman do to him?” 

“He could stay in the play room until he’s more comfortable.” Weasel says and they make their way out of the back kennels toward a glass walled room to the left of the lobby. When she tries to put him down he holds on again and eventually she gives up. “Maybe you should adopt him.” 

Pressed against her he can feel the beat of her heart and the stuttering of it as Weasel makes the suggestion is telling. Arya likes to pretend she’s okay, but the loss of her childhood companion and Warging partner has left her downtrodden and hurt. It’s why she had moved to King’s Landing in the first place; she couldn’t stand to live in the place Nymeria had taken her last breaths. That was one of the reasons he had made plans to take her out that night. She had been keeping herself locked up in her apartment when she wasn’t working and while she had told him it was simply because it was a busy season for pet injuries, he knew her better than that. Nymeria had quite literally been a part of her and the loss of the massive wolf hound had broken off a piece of her she couldn’t reclaim. 

“I don’t…” she hesitates, probably looking for the best way to say no without having to explain why. But then, she surprises him. “I don’t have anything for him, do we have any donations?” she asks. 

Weasel perks up. “We just got a new delivery today.” she tells her, turning on her heels and rushing off excitedly. Arya takes her time following her, stroking Gendry along the back until he calms down. He’s nearly asleep when she speaks up again;

“Gendry huh? My favorite name. I guess it was meant to be then.” 

xXx

Arya’s apartment is pretty spacious for only one person, but he knows it’s just a habit she’s had trouble breaking. When Nymeria was alive she needed all the room for the massive hound. 

Arya huffs as he jumps out of her arms as they walk through the door. He had made her carry him all the way home, too scared that she would change her mind and take him back to the shelter. But now that they’re here, he feels a lot better. “I guess make yourself at home.” she tells him, pulling the cat bed and toys from the reusable bag she brought home with them, she tosses them into the corner of the living room. “Don’t make a mess, Gendry will be here soon.” she calls out to him as she disappears into the bathroom. He flinches at the reminder of their plans and hopes some day she’ll forgive him for standing her up. It’s not as if he wants to miss tonight after all and in the grand scheme of things, he’s already here, she just doesn’t know it yet. 

Arya is in the bathroom for a while and when she comes out, she looks stunning. She’s wearing a lacy black dress, her face all done up. She’s even left her hair down. For a moment he’s struck by the idea that she’s done all of this for him, but then he reminds himself she always looks this good when they go out. She’s a social person and even if she doesn’t particularly like dresses, she knows how to wear one well. 

Gendry has made himself comfortable on the couch, despite the little bed she’s set out for him. He watches as she sighs, setting her shoes on the floor and sitting down beside him. 

“Tonight is the night.” she tells him, scritching him around his ears. He leans into it. “I’m going to tell him everything.” she continues. Confusion plays through his mind and he feels a pang of regret knowing how badly this evening is going to end for her. There’s a nervous energy around her and he doesn’t know if he can feel it because he’s a cat now, or because he just knows her so well. “Maybe I should practice what I’m going to say.” she mutters to herself. After a moment she gets up, kneeling on the floor in front of him. “You be Gendry, okay.” she giggles a little at the joke. “Alright,” she gets a hold of herself, taking a deep breath. “Gendry, there’s something that I need to tell you.” she begins. “I… like you, a lot, like so much… fuck I can’t say that. What am I thirteen? Do you like me check yes or no.” she huffs, dropping her forehead against the sofa cushion. Gendry watches in fascination, the weight of her words settling in his chest. Could she really feel the same about him as he does about her? “Okay, how about this? Gendry, I love you. I have loved you for so long and I understand if you don’t feel the same way, but I can’t keep it to myself anymore...so…” 

Arya deflates again, whining; “Why is this so hard?” Gendry reaches over with a paw and pats her on the head. She looks up at him and smiles softly. “Thank you.” she leans over and lays a kiss on his head. “I think Gendry is going to like you.” she tells him. “He’s a cat person ya know, even if he pretends to be indifferent. My Nymie loved him.” she says softly, laying her head on the sofa cushion and reaching out to scritch around his neck. “That’s how I knew I could trust him when we met.” 

Gendry purrs doing his best to soften the blow of what he knows will come. He cuddles up to her, purring as she does the same. She kisses him on the head and he feels his heart soar before he remembers that she has no idea who he is. Any minute now he knows this happiness is going to crack and fade, any minute now she’s going to realize he’s not coming and whether she’ll be upset or worried is anyone’s guess.

Eventually Arya begins to realize something is wrong, checking her phone for the time and any text messages that may explain why he’s late. “Where are you?” She mutters to herself, sitting up and unlocking her phone. She sends out a text but gets no reply. Gendry isn’t even sure where his phone ended up. He had it on him last night when Melisandre lured him back to her house, and he has to assume she’s smart enough not to keep it around.

When Arya doesn’t get a response she calls it, putting the phone on speaker as she moves into the kitchen. Gendry follows, listening to it ring before cutting off to voicemail. “Hey Gen, just wondering where you are. Let me know what’s going on.” She says, then hangs up. She putters around the kitchen for about fifteen minutes before she turns back to her phone staring down at the screen as if trying to make a decision. “I’m probably just overreacting. He’s probably just gotten caught up in a new project.” 

It wouldn’t be the first time it had happened. As a freelance artist, Gendry tended to work at odd hours, usually whenever inspiration struck him. So it wasn’t much of a stretch for her to believe he was in his workshop. 

Gendry hops up onto the barstool across from her and watches as she dials another number, setting the phone on the counter as it rings. 

_ “Hey Arya, shouldn’t you be out with Gendry right now?” _ Hot Pie answers the call, his voice a little tinny over the speaker. 

“Yeah, about that, he’s late. He isn’t in his workshop or something is he?” Arya asks. 

_ “Not that I know of. Honestly I haven’t seen him since he left for his date last night.”  _ Hot Pie replies and Gendry suddenly feels the urge to strangle his roommate. He looks up at Arya, surprised to see what he can only describe as devastation on her face. 

“He had a date last night?” She asks. “Did he say with who?” 

_ “Mel-something,” _ Hot Pie says. _ “I honestly wasn’t paying attention, I’m not expecting it to go anywhere.” _

“I see, well if you see him, can you have him call me?” 

_ “Sure thing.” _ Hot Pie hesitates, then;  _ “He’s really not there?” _

“No, he’s not.” 

_ “That’s… really weird, it’s not like him to miss anything with you.” _

“Yeah, he probably just got caught up or something.” Arya replies quickly, trying to keep the emotion out of her voice. “Just let me know when he gets home.”

_ “Sure.” _

“Thanks.” She hangs up quickly, a tear managing to escape. She quickly wipes it away, but another falls just after it. Gendry feels his heart clench at the sight. He’s never been able to handle his own emotions when Arya cries and the idea that he did this to her only makes it that much worse. He hops up on the counter and walks toward. She buries her face in his fur as she scratches his side, leaving a kiss before she pulls away. “I guess tonight wasn’t the night.” 

More tears fall and she quickly scrubs them away, turning on her heels and walking into the bathroom. Gendry curses himself, the self loathing rising up as he sits himself outside the bathroom door, listening to her cry on the other side. He’s not sure how much time passes before she comes out, now in an old sweatshirt he’s been looking for for months. She sees him sitting at her feet and smiles sadly. 

“At least you love me, right?” She asks. He meows loudly, standing up on his back paws and stretching up her leg. She chuckles, scooping him up. “We’ll see if you still feel that way the next time I have to stick a thermometer up your butt.” 

XXx

They’re both awoken the next morning by Arya’s cellphone. 

“Hello.” Arya answers, still half asleep. Gendry rolls over, curling up against her. 

_ “Arry, it’s Hot Pie, did Gendry show up last night?”  _ He can hear Hot Pie, her phone turned up just enough to make it fairly clear to him. 

“No why?” She asks. 

_ “He didn’t come home again last night.” _

Arya sits up abruptly. “Are you sure?” 

_ “Positive, his bed is still made and his workshop is empty.” _ He explains as Arya quickly gets out of bed.  _ “I think we should file a missing persons report or something.” _

“Okay, I’m on my way now.” 

_ “Alright-.” _ Is all he hears as Arya hangs up and rushes around the bedroom, dressing quickly. There’s a sudden burst of excitement running through him. He’s been so busy feeling sorry for himself that he’s completely forgotten about his friends realizing something is wrong. Arya may have been a little too heartbroken to think clearly last night, but she knows better than to think he wouldn’t contact her as soon as he was able, no matter where he was or what he was doing. 

She doesn’t even acknowledge him as she dresses and grabs what she needs, rushing out of the flat. He spends most of the day waiting for her to get back, lazing out in the only way a cat can. The sun is almost completely set by the time she returns looking distraught and exhausted. She’s not alone either, his roommates Hot Pie and Podrick following her in. 

“I’m going to kill that bitch.” Arya exclaims, tossing her things down on the couch, nearly hitting him in the process. 

“Arya-“

“No! She did something to him, I know she did. That bitch has been up Stannis’ ass for as long as I can remember, and what better way to win him over than to get rid of the only obstacle between him and whatever Robert left Gendry.” 

She stomps off to the kitchen, leaving Podrick and Hot Pie behind, giving them both ample opportunity to notice him. 

“Arry, when did you get a cat?” Hot Pie calls out, eyeing Gendry wearily. Hot Pie was a shifter, a rat shifter to be exact. If he wasn’t so preoccupied with getting back to normal, he’d take advantage of the opportunity to mess with him. 

“Yesterday.” Arya replies, returning with three bottles of water. She passes one to each of them and collapses on the sofa beside Gendry. “Isn’t that right Gen.” 

Podrick snorts into his water bottle, little dribbles going everywhere. “Did you seriously name the cat after Gendry?” 

“No,” she huffs, sticking her nose in the air. “That was…” her face falls and her false bravado with it.

“What’s wrong?” Hot Pie asks. 

Arya doesn’t reply, staring down at Gendry like she’s trying to convince herself what she’s thinking is crazy. He gets up, sitting on his haunches and raising up to gesture with his front paws. He’s not sure what he’s doing, but he’s trying to point to himself. 

Arya sits up straight pulling her phone out and dialing a number. 

“Arry, what’s wrong?” Podrick tries, but she still doesn’t answer. 

“Weasel!” Arya exclaims as she picks up on the other end of the line. “If I send you a picture, could you tell me if it’s the woman who brought Gendry into the shelter?” there’s a pause, then; “Great, I’m sending it now.” Arya waits for it to go through then puts the phone back to her ear. “It is? You’re sure?” she pauses for an answer. “Great, I’ll explain later, thank you.” 

Arya hangs up and turns to Gendry. “Melisandre turned Gendry into a cat.” she says out loud. Both Podrick and Hot Pie pop up in their seats, staring down at the large black Maine Coon. 

“Are you sure?” Podrick asks as Hot Pie says;

“Can she do that?” 

Gendry jumps into Arya’s arms, nestling down as if to tell her she’s right, which seems to be a good enough answer for all of them. 

“Holy shit.” Podrick curses, digging his phone out of his pocket. “I’ll call Brienne, the police have witches on staff for stuff like this.” he turns and walks into the kitchen to make the call. 

“This is insane.” Hot Pie mutters and Arya merely nods in agreement, too distracted as Gendry excitedly nuzzles his face against hers. 

xXx

The witch Brienne brings over is not someone they know, but Brienne vouches for her, which is good enough for Arya. “Jaime left the station when I did to arrest Melisandre.” Brienne explains as they watch the witch set up her spell in the center of Arya’s living room. Arya hasn’t put Gendry down at all since he jumped into her arms and he’s not complaining. 

“Alright.” the witch says, standing straight and turning to them. “Place him in the center of the circle and we can begin.”

“This isn’t going to hurt him, is it?” Arya asks, slowly approaching the intricate circle drawn on the floor. 

The woman smiles kindly at her. “It may be a bit uncomfortable, but there shouldn’t be any pain.” she tells her and Arya hesitantly sets Gendry in the circle. The woman gets to work as soon as Arya stands clear and before long there’s a flash of light so bright it sends dark spots through his vision even after the light fades. 

“Oh thank the gods.” he hears Podrick mutter and then there’s something falling over his shoulders, fabric wrapping around him. He blinks the spots from his eyes, shaking his head and when his vision clears he finds Arya kneeling in front of him, smiling up at him and holding a blanket closed around him. He doesn’t think much beyond that, reaching out to her and pulling her in, kissing her soundly. 

“About time.” Hot Pie says behind them, but he ignores him and everyone else for that matter as Arya pulls away. 

“I love you too.” he tells her, watching the bright smile spread across her face. 


	17. Secrets Out

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Anon: If you're still taking prompts, I'm late to the party but would love to read Gendry/Arya in a newish, secret relationship and someone at a night out or party at the Starks (Jeyne Poole is always good) claims she is hooking up with Gendry. Arya demands proof (birthmarks, boxers or briefs or commando or kinks or preferred sex toys or whatever you can dream up) and ends up outing her relationship with him. Inspired by this quote from your prompt list, “I’m not jealous! It’s just… you’re mine!”

Jeyne Poole had been the bane of her existence from the moment Sansa brought her into their house. One would think age would mitigate maturity, renewal, but no, she was still as vain and conceited as always. Arya knew better than to expect apologies for all the nasty things she had said to her growing up, or the way she seemed to delight in putting Arya down, even after they had seemed to find a balance in their coexistence in Sansa’s life. Honestly, the only reason she put up with her was because of Sansa and the years of work her sister had put in to making up for her childhood transgressions. 

But this, this was too fucking much. 

“Are you serious?” Sansa asks, the in-credulousness in her voice going a long way to placate Arya. “You're the new girl he’s been seeing secretly?” 

“Totally, we hooked at the last barbecue and we’ve been seeing each other ever since.” 

“I don’t believe that for one moment.” Margaery replies, earning a scowl from Jeyne. Margarey was probably Arya’s favorite person in the world. As Sansa’s girlfriend she had witnessed Jeyne first hand over the years and seems to dislike the woman on principle. She’d once confided in Arya that Jeyne reminded her too much of someone she knew growing up, someone who hung on her every word, followed her around simply because of her status. Arya wasn’t sure she believed that was Jeyne’s only motivation for being Sansa’s friend, but it was certainly one of them. 

“Why not?” Jeyne demanded a little too strongly. 

“Because Gendry Waters is an antisocial who's madly in love with someone else.” Margaery replies as if it's the most obvious thing in the world. 

Jeyne scoffs. “Who? Who could he possibly want more than-”

“More than you?” Margaery interrupts. “Someone who isn’t so full of herself I’m sure.” 

Jeyne’s face turns red as she looks on the older woman with outrage, but before she can explode Arya speaks up, her own anger taking over. 

“If you're sleeping with him prove it.” she says, watching Jeyne deflate as her attention shifts. 

“How?” 

“Tell us something that someone who has only seen him naked would know. Birthmarks, tattoos, what kind of underwear does he prefer?”

Jeyne rolls her eyes, but there’s an uneasiness in them that tells Arya all she needs to know and more. 

“I don’t have anything to prove to you.” Jeyne snaps. 

“Then why bring it up at all?” Margaery questions. 

Jeyne huffs. “Fine, he has a tattoo on his ass.” she tells them. 

“What’s it of.” Arya asks without hesitation. She ignores the suspicious looks Sansa and Margaery give her, crossing her arms and staring straight ahead at Jeyne. The older girl shifts uncomfortable in her seat. 

“A bull, obviously.” she finally replies.

“Wrong, it’s a wolf.” she tells her. “What’s the tattoo covering?” Jeyne merely glares at her in reply. “Nothing? It’s covering scars from the time he fell on a cactus on his trip to Dorne in third grade.” 

Jeyne huffs, rolling her eyes in what they’ve all come to recognize as her universal sign of defeat. She gets up from her chair and stomps off. Margaery looks a little too smug and Sansa shoots her a look that basically asks her not to start anything then turns her attention to Arya. 

“So, how did you know what kind of tattoo Gendry has?” Sansa asks. 

“He’s my best friend, why wouldn’t I know.” she replies, but her response is anything but convincing. 

“Funny that he would choose a wolf, don’t you think?” Margaery asks in a sickly sweet tone. 

“He was drunk and lost a bet.” 

“And in his drunken state of mind he chose the symbol for which his best friend is best known.” 

Sansa grins. “Oh my gods, it’s you.” she exclaims excitedly, but before Arya can argue, Gendry appears at her elbow. 

“Can I borrow you for a minute?” he asks and she nods dumbly, following him away from the patio table and into the house. He leads her to a quiet place before he says anything. “Listen, I heard that bloody rumor Jeyne’s been spreading, are you alright?” 

Arya huffs, crossing her arms. “Why wouldn’t I be?” 

He watches her amused, knowing better than anyone she’s just putting on an act. “I just wanted to make sure you were jealous or anything. Not that you have anything to be jealous of. I wouldn’t touch her if she paid me.” 

“I’m not jealous!” she snaps, scowling up at him. When he doesn’t rise to the bait she deflates. “It’s just that… you’re mine.” the last bit comes out a bit flat. 

Gendry chuckles. “Yes, I am.” he replies, stepping into her space. His arms come up around her and he tucks her into him. “And you’re mine.” 

Arya sinks into him, wrapping her arms around him as well. A few moments of silence later and she says; 

“I may have outed our relationship to Sansa and Margaery though.” she feels him tense. It wasn’t that he didn’t want anyone to know about them, it was just that he didn’t want anyone to find out while they were surrounded by Starks and their closest friends in the Stark’s own home. 

“How bad is it?” 

“Well… they know I know what kind of tattoo you have on your ass so…” 

“So I should duck out now, shave my head and change my name?” 

“I don’t know if I’d like what you look like with a shaved head.” 


	18. A Little Nutty

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Scarletnerd05: Okay, okay can i also please have Gendrya (probably always gonna go for this pairing haha) "It’s 2am and I was just trying to get home but I left my sunroof open all day and now there’s a squirrel in my car and it scared me and I drove into a pole - stop laughing! You’re a cop, aren’t you supposed to be helping?"

Arya liked animals, she always had. From her pets growing up, her favorite dog Nymeria, to the stray cats that roamed her family’s Northern Ranch, she loved animals. She even dedicated her life to them. 

So why, after all her loyalty and devotion, would they betray her like this?

Storm’s End was like a humid nightmare, it was one of the few things she hated about living there, so, while she was at work it made perfect sense to leave the sunroof of her car open to keep the interior from heating up too much. It was a beautiful day, there wasn’t a cloud insight despite the area’s name and she was confident that everything would be alright. 

Well the jokes on her! 

She was half way home after working the late shift, cruising through the back roads when the little monster made himself known. A squirrel had decided to take her open sunroof as an invitation to enter while her car was parked at work and the little fucker decided to throw itself at her like she had kidnapped it and was trying to fight it’s way to freedom like some action thriller. She screamed, it screamed, there was a whole lot of screaming and then bam, the car was abruptly halted in its tracks, the front end doing it’s best to hug a telephone pole. 

Arya managed to get a hold of the animal, cursing the whole time-herself mostly, but she wouldn’t be surprised if some of those little squirrel squeaks weren’t curses too. She climbed out of the car and set the animal loose across the road. That just left the matter of her car. 

Thankfully she had cell services on the back roads and was able to call the local sheriff’s office for help. Now, she had only been in the area for about six months and she hadn’t had any cause to interact with the local law enforcement in that time, but if all the officers in the Sheriff's department looked like the guy that just pulled up, she would consider turning to a life of crime. 

The patch on his shirt read Waters, G and the man himself was ridiculously tall. He was gorgeous really, his shirt nearly a size too small, muscles bulging. She stamped down the sudden urge to lick him. 

Thankfully the feeling passed fairly quickly, around the time she finished explaining what happened and he started laughing at her. She would give him credit, he had done his best to keep the laughter in, but in the end it was useless and the stoic man who walked up was now doubled over. She stood beside her car, arms crossed, tapping her foot in a gesture very reminiscent of her mother. 

“Stop laughing!” she snaps eventually. “You’re a cop, aren’t you supposed to be helping?”

“Sorry.” he replies, getting a hold of himself. She struck then by how handsome he looks, laugh lines at the corners of his eyes and the brilliant blue shining with tears of laughter. 

Unfortunately it doesn’t last, because the next thing she knows he’s turning to get her Vin number and the laughter starts up again.


	19. Left of Center

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> For Anon: We all like to sleep in the same bed at night, but somehow one of us always ends up pushing the other two off the fucking bed. With a/g/p please.

The thump as he hits the floor startles Podrick awake and he struggles against the tangle of blankets, huffing as he rights himself, peering over the edge of the bed at the tiny lone figure still laying there. 

“Just let it go babe, it’s not worth it.” Gendry mutters from where he landed some undetermined amount of time before. 

“Not worth it?” Podrick questions, feeling a touch of annoyance at the clear surrender. “It’s two against one, and she’s the smallest of all of us.” 

“She’s also terrifying and adorable.” 

“That’s not an excuse to let her get away with this all the time.” Podrick replies. 

Gendry huffs. “Just go back to sleep. We can talk about it in the morning.” 

“I will go back to sleep. In my own god damned bed.” 

“Keep your voice down, you’ll wake Arry.” 

“Good.” 

“Pods.” 

“This bed is big enough for five, there’s no reasons she should feel the need to push us out.” 

“She’s not doing it on purpose.” Gendry defends sleepily. In the dark, Podrick watches him roll over onto his side to face him. “She’s got a little human growing inside her, she's uncomfortable.”

Podrick feels his temper dissipate just a bit at the idea, but he’s still annoyed. Lying down he says; “That may be, but we still need to put our foot down. We both have to work in the morning, we can’t keep doing this.” 

“What are you guys doing on the floor?” a sleepy voice calls out from the edge of the bed and they both look up to find Arya peeking over it at him. She looks so cute, sleep tousled and confused and just like that the annoyance dissipates completely. 

“We were just trying to give you some space.” he replies, ignoring Gendry snort beside him. 

Arya’s nose scrunches up in displeasure. “Come back to bed.” she tells them, disappearing back over the side. 

“Way to put your foot down.” Gendry mutters as they get up. 


	20. Refuge

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I finally sat down to get work done on my WIPs and half way through the fucking internet went down, so now I’m just writing a bunch of these on my phone to keep from breaking something in a fit of rage. 
> 
> Enjoy!

He is the safe harbor in which she finds refuge from the storm. When the winds blow and the rain stings, he is the light house in the distance promising warm drink and soft embrace. In the darkness he is there and when the sun rises and the skies clear, he will still be there. 

  


Gendry Waters- he uses his mother’s name, because his father doesn’t deserve him- is the only friend Arya knows she can turn to in the darkest of moments. That knowledge may hurt her other friends, but it’s the truth. Gendry sees her, where others only see what she wants them to, he sees what she hides. He sees her insecurities and the darkness that threatens to consume her when bad memories play on a loop in her mind. He sees the way she looks longingly at her sister, wishing she was better at the things their mother would be proud of. He sees the way she smiles, stiffly and without real emotion whenever she shows up after having spent the day with her family. 

Tonight he doesn’t haven’t to look very hard to know something is wrong. With tears staining her cheeks he merely steps aside to let her in. He takes her coat and holds her close, letting her wet the front of his t-shirt with the tears she thought were all dried up. He doesn’t ask what happened, doesn’t question why she’s all dressed up. He already knows, can imagine just what was said, not purposefully cruel, by her mother over dinner. 

“They don’t deserve you.“ he whispers softly, rocking back and forth gently. She only cries harder. 

At some point he scoops her up and takes her to the sofa, sitting among the blankets he vacated. The local club game is playing on the television and she thinks about how much better her night would have been if she had just cancelled in her family and come here instead. How she could have saved herself all of the heartache and disappointment. 

“Why aren’t I good enough?” She whispers into his shoulder. She couldn’t help herself, it just came out. The question has been burning her tongue for years but she’s never actually said it out loud. She feels Gendry tense against her, then just as quickly relax, stroking her hair and laying a kiss on her temple. 

“You are enough, Arry.” He says softly. Gendry isn’t one for words, so when he does speak his words are chosen carefully and weighted with enough emotion to get his point across. 

Arya looks up at him, the weight of his words settling in her chest. He stares back down at her, his bright blue eyes shining with the words he’s never said and has never had to. She knows. 

She leans up slowly, kissing him softly and he doesn’t hesitate to return it. They’ve done this dance so many times before that she’s used to it. She doesn’t question it when he stands, his arms like steel bands around her. She doesn’t question it when he carries her into his room or lays her gently on the bed. She twists this way and that to help him get her clothes off, the itchy green dress her mother insisted she wear. This dance is practiced and well rehearsed. 

His hands are scorching against her skin, large, nearly covering her entire abdomen as he presses her back to the mattress each time she rocks up against his mouth. His plays with her, circles her, burns his brand into her with his tongue; like the swords he crafts in his spare time.

Her breathing is labored as he takes his place beside her. The weight of her insecurities can’t find her here, not with Gendry here to keep them at bay. She turns to face him and sees the look in his eyes, she sadness she’s seen every time they do this. At first she hadn’t known what it meant, and her insecurities had her belong he regretted this, but as time wore on she realized it was because he knew she would leave in the morning. And she always did, before he woke, her side of the bed would be empty and she would be well on her way home to shower and change and spend the day trying not to think about why it was getting harder and harder to leave him. 

The fall asleep cuddled together and in the morning before the sun breaks the horizon she wakes as she always does, but this time... this time she doesn’t leave. She presses further against him and falls back into the blissful dreams she only has when he he’s around. When she wakes again he’s staring down at her with a hope he doesn’t often let anyone see. She merely smiles, stretching up to kiss him, morning breath be damned. 

She bids him good morning and his only answer is to wrap his arms around her and pull her as close as she can, burying his face in her neck. She hums softly as he gently lays kisses there. 

There isn’t anything that can pull her away from him, even her phone ringing, undoubtedly her mother calling to find out why she’s late for Sunday brunch. She ignores it all, content to remain here in this spot with Gendry forever. 

“I love you.” She whispers the words she’s never been able to say into the dawn. She feels him still against her.

“I know.” He replies softly. He doesn’t have to say it back, he never will have to say it. He’s her port in the storm, and if that isn’t proof enough that he feels the same, then nothing is. 


End file.
